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PICKETT  OR  PITTIGRS 


AN 


HISTORICAL  ESSAY, 

[revised  and  enlarged.] 


CAPT.  W.  R.  BOND, 

Sometime  Officer  Brigade  Staff  Army  Northern  Virgini; 


•Tell  the  truth  and  the  world  will  come  to  see 
it  at  last.**— Emerson. 


SECOND  EDITION. 


Single  copy. 
Five  copies, 


|   .25 
1.00 


W.  L.  L.  HALL.  Publisher. 
Scotland  Neck,  N.  C. 


■  S3 

Library  of  C0BgrM% 
Offles  of  tht 

MAY1O1W0 

RegUtor  of  Copyrlgfctfc 

(Ajl*j.  e<J,j 

DEDICATION. 


To  the  memory  of  the  brave  men  of  Hill's 
Corps,  who  were  killed  while  fighting  under 
the  orders  of  General  Longstreet,  on  the  after- 
noon of  July  3rd,  1863  ;  whose  fame  has  been 
clouded  by  the  persistent  misrepresentations 
of  certain  of  their  comrades,  this  "little  book" 
is  affectionately  dedicated. 

W.  R.  B. 
Scotland  Neck,  Halifax  Co.,  N.  C, 
October,  1888. 


Copyrighted  1888, 

BY 

W.  W.  HALL. 


THE  COMMONWEALTH  JOB  PRINT, 
SCOTLAND  NECK,  N.  C. 


PREFACE, 


10 


The  first  edition  of  this  pamphlet  appeared  a  short 
time  before  the  publication  of  the  Official  Records  re- 
lating- to  Gettysburg.  Consequently  many  things  of 
importance  to  the  subject  treated  were  unknown  to 
the  writer.  Such  facts  as  he  possessed  of  his  own 
knowledge  or  could  gather  from  his  comrades  and 
other  sources,  together  with  a  lot  of  statistics  secur- 
ed from  the  War  Department,  were  published  and 
with  gratifying  results.  Very  many  of  the  state- 
ments then  made  and  which  were  not  open  to  success- 
ful contradiction  were  so  much  at  variance  with  the 
general  belief  that  the  brochure  attracted  wide  atten- 
tion, especially  among  old  soldiers.  From  Tacoma 
on  the  Pacific  slope  and  Augusta,  Maine,  from  Chica- 
go and  NewT  Orleans,  came  assurances  of  interest  and 
,'ppreciation.  In  fact  there  are  very  few  States  from 
which  there  have  not  come  expressions  either  of  sur- 
prise that  the  slander  should  ever  have  originated  or 
of  sympathy  with  the  effort  to  right  a  great  wrong. 

That  the  two  thousand  copies  formerly  issued 
should  have  been  disposed  of  two  years  ago  and  that 
there  is  still  a  demand  for  the  pamphlet,  is  deemed  suf- 
cient  reason  for  this  edition.  And  the  recent  publi- 
cation in  New  York  of  a  history  repeating  the  old 
falsehoods  emphasizes  the  need  of  keeping  the  facts 
before  the  public. 

It  would  be  a  matter  of  regret  should  any  state- 


•I  PBEFACE. 

ment  in  these  pages  wound  bhe  sensibilities  of  any 
personal  friends  of  the  author,  still  in  such  an  event 
he  would  be  measurably  consoled  by  the  reflection 
that  here  as  in  most  matters  if.  is  best  to  "hew  to  the 
line  and  let  the  chips  fall  as  they  may." 

Scotland  Neck,  N.  C.,  April,  1900. 


General  James  Johnston  Pettigrew. 


"'I  here  lived  a  knight,  when  knighthood  was  in  flow'r, 
Who  i  harm'd  alike  the  till  yard  amd  the  bowi 

The  family  <>f  Johnston  Pettigrew  was  one  of  the 
oldest,  wealthiest  and  most  influential  of  Eastern 
Carolina.  His  grandfather,  Rev.  Chas.  Pettigrew, 
was  the  firsl  Bishop-elect  of  the  Diocese  of  North 
Carolina.  Be  was  born  upon  his  father's  estate, 
Bonarva,  Luke  Scuppernong,  Tyrrell  county,  North 
Carolina,  on  July  Lth,  L828,  and  died  near  Bunker's 
Bill,  Va.,  July  17th,  1863,  having  been  wounded 
three  days  before  in  a  skirmish  a1  Falling  Waters. 
Be  graduated  with  the  firsl  distinction  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  North  Carolina  in  1847.  A  few  months  after 
graduation,  at  the  request  of  Commodore  Maury, 
principal  of  the  Naval  Observatory  at  Washington, 
he  accepted  a  professorship  in  Mint  institution. 
Baving  remained  there  aboul  eight  months  he  re- 
signed and  went  to  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  and 
became  a  student  of  law,  in  the  office  of  his  dis- 
tinguished relative,  Bon.  .Ins.  L.  Pettigru,  obtaining 
a  license  in  1849.  In  1850  he  went  to  Europe  to 
study  the  civil  law  in  the  German  Universities. 
There  also  he  became  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  the  German,  French,  Italian  and  Spanish  lan- 
guages. Be  became  so  well  acquninted  with  Arabic 
as  to  read  and  appreciate  it ;  also  with  Bebrew.  Be 
then  traveled  over  the  various  countries  of  the  Conti- 


6  Gen.  James  Johnston  Pettigrew. 

nent,  also  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland.  In  1852 
he  became  Secretary  of  Legation  to  the  U.  S.  Minister 
at  the  Court  of  Madrid.  In  the  winter  of  1 861  he  had 
printed  in  Charleston,  for  private  circulation,  an  oc- 
tavo volume  of  430  pages,  entitled  "Spain  and  the 
Spaniards,"  which  has  been  very  much  admired  by 
every  one  who  has  read  it,  for  its  learning,  its  re- 
search and  the  elegance  of  its  style.  Having  remain- 
ed in  Madrid  only  a  few  months  he  returned  to 
Charleston  and  entered  upon  the  practice  of  law  with 
Mr.  James  L.  Pettigru.  In  December,  1856,  and  De- 
cember, 1857,  he  wras  chosen  a  member  of  the  Legis- 
lature from  the  city  of  Charleston.  He  rose  to  great 
distinction  in  that  body,  by  his  speech  on  the  organ- 
ization of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  his  report  against 
the  re-opening  of  the  African  Slave  Trade.  He  failed 
to  be  re-elected  in  1858.  Again  in  1859  he  went  to 
Europe  with  the  intention  of  taking  part  in  the  war 
then  in  progress  between  Sardinia  and  Austria.  His 
application  to  Count  Cavour  for  a  position  in  the 
Sardinian  Army,  under  Gen'l  Marmora,  was  favora- 
bly received.  His  rank  would  have  been  at  least  that 
of  Colonel ;  but  in  consequence  of  the  results  of  the 
battle  of  Solferino,  which  took  place  just  before  his 
arrival  in  Sardinia,  the  war  was  closed  and  he  was 
thereby  prevented  from  experiencing  active  military 
service  and  learning  its  lessons.  In  1859  he  became 
Colonel  of  a  rifle  regiment  that  was  formed  and  that 
acted  a  conspicuous  part  around  Charleston  in  the 
winter  of  1860-61.  With  his  regiment  he  took  pos- 
session of  Castle  Pinkney,  and  was  afterwards  trans- 
ferred to  Morris  Island,  where  he  erected  formidable 
batteries.  He  held  himself  in  readiness  to  storm  Fort 
Sumpter  in  case  it  had  not  been  surrendered  after 
bombardment.    In  the  spring  of  1861,  his  regiment 


Gen.  Jam  es  .]  ohnston  Pettigrew.  7 

growing  impatient  because  it  could  not  just  then  be 
incorporated  in  the  Confederate  Army,  disbanded; 
Col.  Pettigrew  then  joined  Hampton's  Legion  as  a 
private,  and  went  with  that  body  to  Virginia,  where 
active  service  was  to  be  met  with.  A  few  days  after- 
wards, without  any  solicitation  on  his  part,  he  was 
elected  Colonel  of  the  22d  North  Carolina  Troops. 
While  at  Evansport,  he  was  offered  promotion,  but 
declined  it,  upon  the  ground,  that  it  would  separate 
him  from  his  regiment.  Late  in  the  spring  of  1862 
an  arrangement  was  made  by  which  his  regiment  was 
embraced  in  the  brigade.  He  then  accepted  the  com- 
mission. He  and  his  brigade  were  with  Gen.  John- 
ston at  Yorktown  and  in  the  retreat  up  the  peninsu- 
la. He  was  with  his  brigade  in  the  sanguinary  bat- 
tle of  Seven  Pines,  or  Fair  Oaks,  where  he  was  severe- 
ly wounded,  and  left  insensible  upon  the  field  and 
captured.  He  was  in  prison  only  about  two  months, 
and  on  being  exchanged  he  returned  to  find  that  in 
his  absence  his  beloved  brigade  had  been  given  to 
General  Pender.  A  new  brigade  was  then  made  up 
for  him.  How  well  this  body  was  disciplined  and  of 
what  material  it  was  made  this  essay  has  attempted 
to  show.  In  the  autumn  of  1862,  he  was  ordered 
with  his  brigade  to  Eastern  North  Carolina,  where  he 
was  engaged  in  several  affairs,  which  though  brilliant 
have  been  overshadowed  by  the  greater  battles  of 
the  war.  In  May,  1863,  his  brigade  was  again  or- 
dered to  Virginia,  and  ever  after  formed  a  part  of  the 
Army  of  Northern  Virginia.  While  commanding 
Heth's  division,  in  Longstreet's  Assault,  though  his 
horse  had  been  killed,  and  he  had  received  a  painful 
wound — a  grapeshot  shattering  his  left  hand — he  was 
witli in  a  few  feet  of  his  own  brigade  when  the  final  re- 
pulse came.    On  his  regaining  our  lines,  his  remark 


8  Gen.  James  Johnston  Pettigrew. 

to  Gen.  Lee  that  he  was  responsible  for  his  brigade, 
but  not  for  the  division,  shows  that  he  was  satisfied 
with  the  conduct  of  a  part,  but  not  with  that  of  all 
the  troops  under  his  command. 

As  to  one  of  the  two  brigades  that  gave  way  before 
the  rest  of  the  line,  he  labored  under  a  very  great 
misapprehension.  He  did  not  know  then,  and  the 
reading  world  has  been  slow  to  realize  since,  how  very 
great'had  been  its  loss  before  retreating.  As  to  the 
Fact  that  in  proportion  to  the  number  carried  into 
the  assault  its  loss  had  been  more  than  twice  as  great 
as  that  of  any  of  Pickett's  brigades,  there  is  not  the 
slightest  doubt.  The  highest  praise  and  not  censure 
should  be  its  reward. 

At  Falling  Waters,  on  the  14th,  he  had  just  been 
placed  in  command  of  the  rear  guard,  which  consist- 
ed of  his  own  and  Archer's  brigade,  when  a  skirmish 
occurred  in  which  he  was  mortally  wounded.  He 
died  on  the  17th,  and  his  remains  were  taken  to  his 
old  home,  Bonarva,  and  there  he  lies  buried  near  the 
beautiful  lake,  whose  sandy  shores  his  youthful  feet 
were  wont  to  tread.    May  he  rest  in  peace ! 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 


Longstreet's  assault  on  the  third  day  at  Gettys- 
burg-, or  what  is  generally,  but  very  incorrectly, 
known  as  "Pickett's  Charge,"  has  not  only  had  its 
proper  place  in  books  treating  of  the  war,  but  has 
been  more  written  about  in  newspapers  and  maga- 
zines than  any  event  in  American  history.  Some  of 
these  accounts  are  simply  silly.  Some  are  false  in 
statement.  Some  are  false  in  inference.  All  in  some 
respects  are  untrue. 

Three  divisions, containing  nine  brigades  and  num- 
bering about  nine  thousand  and  seven  hundred  offi- 
cers and  men,  were  selected  forthe  assaulting  column. 
The  field  over  which  they  were  ordered  to  inarch 
slowly  and  deliberately,  was  about  one  thousand 
yards  wide,  and  was  swept  by  the  fire  of  one  hundred 
cannon  and  twenty  thousand  muskets.  The  smoke 
from  the  preceding  cannonade,  which  rested  upon  the 
field,  was  their  only  cover.  In  view  of  the  fact,  that 
when  the  order  to  go  forward  was  given,  Cemetery 
Ridge  was  not  defended  by  Indians  or  Mexicans,  but 
by  an  army,  which  for  the  greater  part,  was  com- 
posed of  native  Americans,  an  army,  which  if  it  had 
never  done  so  before,  had  shown  in  the  first  and  sec- 
ond day's  battles,  not  only  that  it  could  fight,  but 
could  fight  desperately.  In  view  of  this  fact,  whether 
the  order  to  go  forward  was  a  wise  thing  or  a  fright- 
ful blunder,  I  do  not  propose  to  discuss.  The  pur- 
pose of  this  paper  will  be  to  compare  and  contrast 
the  courage,  endurance  and  soldierly  qualities  of  the 


10  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

different  brigades  engaged  in  this  assault,  dwelling 
especially  apon  the  conduct  of  the  troops  command- 
ed respectively  by  Generals  Pickett  and  Pettigrew. 

If  certain  heading  facts  are  repeated  at  the  risk  of 
monotony,  it  will  be  for  the  purpose  of  impressing 
them  upon  the  memories  of  youthful  readers  of  histo- 
ry. As  a  sample,  but  rather  an  extreme  one,  of  the 
thousand  and  one  foolish  things  which  have  been 
written  of  this  affair,  I  will  state  that  a  magazine  for 
children,  "St.  Nicholas,"  I  think  it  was,  some  time 
ago  contained  a  description  of  this  assault,  in  which 
a  comparrison  was  drawn  between  the  troops  en- 
gaged, and  language  something  like  the  following 
was  used  :  "Those  on  the  left  faltered  and  fled.  The 
right  behaved  gloriously.  Each  body  acted  accord- 
ing- to  its  nature,  for  they  were  made  of  different 
stuff.  The  one  of  common  earth,  the  other  of  finest 
clay.  Pettigrew's  men  were  North  Carolinians,  Pick- 
ett's were  superb  Virginians."  To  those  people  who 
do  not  know  how  the  trash  which  passes  lor  South- 
ern history  was  manufactured,  the  motives  which 
actuated  the  writers,  and  how  greedily  at  first  every- 
thing written  by  them  about  the  war,  was  read,  it  is 
not  so  astonishing-  that  a  libel  containing*  so  much 
Ignorance,  narrowness  and  prejudice  as  the  above 
should  have  been  printed  in  a  respectable  publica- 
tion, as  the  fact,  that  even  to  this  day,  when  official 
records  and  other  data  are  so  accessible,  there  art- 
thousands  of  otherwise  well-informed  people  all  over 
the  land  who  believe  the  slander  to  be  either  entirely 
or  in  part  true.  And  it  looks  almost  like  a  hopeless 
task  to  attempt  to  combat  an  error  which  has  lived 
so  long-  and  flourished  so  extensively.  But  some  one 
has  said,  "Truth  is  a  Krupp  gun,  before  which  False- 
hood's armor,  however  thick,  cannot  stand.    One 


PlGKETT   OR  PETTIGREW?  11 

• 

shot  may  accomplish  nothing-,  or  two,  or  three,  but 
keep  firing  it  will  be  pierced  at  last,  and  its  builders 
and  defenders  will  be  covered  with  confusion."  This 
little  essay  shall  be  my  one  shot,  and  may  Justice 
<  It 'fend  the  right. 

In  the  great  war  the  soldiers  from  New  York  and 
North  Carolina  filled  more  graves  than  those  from 
any  of  the  other  States.  In  the  one  case  fourteen 
and  in  the  other  thirty-six  per  cent-,  of  them  died  in 
supporting  a  cause  which  each  side  believed  to  be  just. 

Virginia,  North  Carolina  and  Georgia  each  had 
about  the  same  number  of  infantry  at  Gettysburg,  in 
all  twenty-four  brigades  of  the  thirty-seven  present. 
Now,  this  battle  is  not  generally  considered  a  North 
Carolina  fight  as  is  Chancellorsville,  but  even  here 
the  soldiers  of  the  old  North  State  met  with  a  greater 
loss  (killed  and  wounded,  remember,  for  North  Caro- 
lina troops  never  attempted  to  rival  certain  Virginia 
brigades  in  the  number  of  men  captured),  than  did 
those  from  any  other  State,  and,  leaving  out  Geor- 
gians, greater  than  did  those  from  any  two  States. 
Though  the  military  population  of  North  Carolina 
was  exceeded  by  that  of  Virginia  and  Tennessee,  she 
had  during  the  war  more  men  killed  upon  the  battle 
field  than  both  of  them  together.  This  is  a  matter 
of  record.  It  may  be  that  she  was  a  little  deliberate 
in  making  up  her  mind  to  go  to  war,  but  when  once 
she  went  in  she  went  in  to  stay.  At  the  close  of  the 
terrible  struggle  in  which  so  much  of  her  best  blood 
had  been  shed,  her  soldiers  surrendered  at  Appomat- 
tox and  Greensboro  more  muskets  than  did  those 
from  any  other  State  in  the  Confederacy.  Why 
troops  with  this  record  should  not  now  stand  as  high 
everywhere  as  they  did  years  ago  in  Lee's  and  John- 
ston's armies,  may  appear  a  problem  hard  to  solve, 


12  Pickett  or  Pbttigrew? 

# 

but  its  soluton  is  the  simplest  thing  in  the  world,  and 
I  will  presently  give  it. 

The  crack  brigades  of  General  Lee's  army  were 
noted  for  their  close  fighting.  When  they  entered  a 
battle  they  went  in  to  kill,  and  they  knew  that  many 
of  the  enemy  could  not  be  killed  at  long  range.  This 
style  of  fighting  was  dangerous,  and  of  course  the 
necessary  consequence  in  the  shape  of  a  casualty  list, 
large  either  in  numbers  or  per  centage,  followed. 
Then  there  were  some  troops  in  the  army  who  would 
on  all  occasions  blaze  away  and  waste  ammunition, 
satisfied  if  only  they  were  making  a  noise.  Had  they 
belonged  to  the  army  of  that  Mexican  general  who 
styled  himself  the  "Napoleon  of  the  West,"  they 
would  not  have  been  selected  for  his  "Old  Guard," 
but  yet,  without  exception,  they  stood  high  in  the 
estimation  of  the  Richmond  people,  much  higher  in- 
deed than  very  many  of  the  best  troops  in  our  army. 

As  said  above,  Longstreet's  assault  is  almost  inva- 
riably spoken  and  written  of  as  "Pickett's  charge." 
This  name  and  all  the  name  implies,  is  what  I  shall 
protest  against  in  this  article.  At  the  battle  of  Ther- 
mopylae three  hundred  Spartans  and  seven  hundred 
Thespians  sacrificed  their  lives  for  the  good  of  Greece. 
Every  one  has  praised  Leonidas  and  his  Spartans. 
How  many  have  ever  so  much  as  heard  of  the  equal- 
ly brave  Thespians  ?  I  do  not  know  of  a  case  other 
than  this  of  the  Thespians,  where  a  gallant  body  of 
soldiers  has  been  treated  so  cruelly  by  history,  as  the 
division  which  fought  the  first  day  under  Heth  and 
the  third  under  Pettigrew.  I  have  no  personal  con- 
cern in  the  fame  of  these  troops,  as  I  belonged  to  and 
fought  in  another  division ;  but  in  two  of  its  brigades 
I  had  intimate  friends  who  were  killed  in  this  battle, 
and  on  their  account  I  would  like  to  see  justice  done. 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  13 

A  mono-  these  friends  were  Captain  Tom  Holliday,  A. 
A.  G.,  of  Davis'  Brigade,  and  Harry  Burgwyn,  Colonel 
of  the  26th  North  Carolina.  (This  regiment  had 
more  men  killed  and  wounded  in  this  battle  than  any 
one  of  the  seven  hundred  Confederate  or  the  two 
thousand  Federal  ever  had  in  any  battle.  Official 
records  show  this.)  And  then,  too,  I  know  of  no 
reason  why  truth,  honesty  and  fair  dealing  should 
not  be  as  much  prized  in  historical  as  in  business 
matters. 

As  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  was  the  most  sanguin- 
ary  of  the  war,  as  by  many  it  is  considered  "the  turn- 
in--  of  the  tide,"  so  the  final  charge  made  preceded 
and  attended  as  it  was  by  peculiarly  dramatic  cir- 
cumstances, has  furnished  a.  subjectfor  more  speeches, 
historical  essays,  paintings  and  poems  than  any 
event  which  ever  occurred  in  America.  Painters  and 
poets,  whose  subjects  are  historical,  of  course  look  to 
history  for  their  authority.  If  history  is  false,  false- 
hood will  soon  become  intrenched  in  poetry  and  art. 

The  world  at  large  gets  its  ideas  of  the  late  war 
from  Northern  sources.  Northern  historians,  when 
i  he  subject  is  peculiarly  Southern,  from  such  histories 
as  Pollard's,  Cook's  and  McCabe's,  and  these  merely 
reflected  the  opinions  of  the  Richmond  newspapers. 
These  newspapers  in  turn  got  their  supposed  facts 
from  their  army  correspondents,  and  they  were  very 
careful  to  have  only  such  correspondents  as  would 
write  what  their  patrons  cared  most  to  read. 

During  the  late  war,  Richmond,  judged  by  its  news- 
papers, was  the  most  provincial  town  in  the  world. 
Though  the  capital  city  of  a  gallant  young  nation, 
and  though  the  troops  from  every  State  thereof  were 
shedding  their  blood  in  her  defence,  she  was  wonder- 
fully narrow  and  selfish.     While  the  citizens  of  Vir- 


14  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

ginia  were  filling  nearly  one-half  of  the  positions  of 
honor  and  trust,  civil  and  military,  Richmond 
thought  that  all  should  be  thus  filled.  With  rare  ex- 
ceptions, no  soldier,  no  sailor,  no  jurist,  no  states- 
man, who  did  not  hail  from  their  State  was  ever  ad- 
mired or  spoken  well  of.  No  army  but  General  Lee's 
and  no  troops  in  that  army  other  than  Virginians, 
unless  they  happened  to  be  few  in  numbers,  as  was 
the  case  of  the  Louisianians  and  Texans,  were  ever 
praised.  A  skirmish  in  which  a  Virginian  regiment 
or  brigade  was  engaged  was  magnified  into  a  fight, 
an  action  in  which  a  few  were  killed  was  a  severe  bat- 
tle, and  if  by  chance  they  were  called  upon  to  bleed 
freely,  then,  according  to  the  Richmond  papers, 
troops  from  some  other  State  were  to  blame  for  it, 
and  no  such  appalling  slaughter  had  ever  been  wit- 
nessed in  the  world's  history. 

Indiscriminate  praise  had  a  very  demoralizing 
effect  upon  many  of  their  troops.  They  were  soon 
taught  that  they  could  save  their  skins  and  make  a 
reputation,  too,  by  being  always  provided  with  an 
able  corps  of  correspondents.  If  they  behaved  well 
it  was  all  right ;  if  they  did  not  it  was  equally  all 
right,  for  their  short-comings  could  be  put  upon 
other  troops  The  favoritism  displayed  by  several 
superior  officers  in  General  Lee's  army  was  unbound- 
ed, and  the  wonder  is  that  this  army  should  have 
continued  to  the  end  in  so  high  a  state  of  efficiency. 
But  then  as  the  slaps  and  bangs  of  a  harsh  step- 
mother may  have  a  less  injurious  effect  upon  the 
characters  of  some  children  than  the  excessive  indul- 
gence of  a  silly  parent,  so  the  morale  of  those  troops, 
who  were  naturally  steady  and  true,  was  less  impair- 
ed by  their  being  always  pushed  to  the  front  when 


Pickett  or  Pettigkew?  15 

danger  threatened,  than  if  they  had  always  been 
sheltered  or  held  in  resri've. 

Naturally  the  world  turned  to  the  Richmond  news- 
papers for  Southern  history,  and  with  what  results  I 
will  give  ;ui  illustration  :  All  war  histories  teach  that 
in  Longstreet's  assault  on  the  third  day  his  right  di- 
vision (Pickett's)  displayed  more  gallantry  and  shed 
more  blood,  in  proportion  to  numbers  engaged,  than 
any  other  troops  on  any  occasion  ever  had.  Now,  if 
gallantry  can  be  measured  by  the  number  or  per 
centage  of  deaths  and  wounds,  and  by  the  fortitude 
with  which  casualties  are  borne,  then  there  were  sever- 
al commands  engaged  in  this  assault,  which  display- 
ed more  gallantry  than  any  brigade  in  General  Long- 
street's  pet  division.  Who  is  there  who  knows  any- 
thing of  this  battle  to  whom  the  name  of  Virginia  is 
not  familiar? 

To  how  many  does  the  name  of  Gettysburg  suggest 
fche  names  of  Tennessee,  Mississippi  or  North  Caro- 
lina? And  yet  the  Tennessee  brigade  suffered  severe- 
ly :  but  the  courage  of  its  survivors  was  unimpaired. 
There  were  three  Mississippi  regiments  in  Davis' brig- 
ade,  which  between  them  had  one  hundred  and  forty- 
one  men  killed  on  the  field.  Pickett's  dead  numbered 
not  quite  fifteen  to  the  regiment.  The  five  North 
Carolina  regiments  of  Pettigrew's  division  bore  with 
fortitude  a  loss  of  two  hundred  and  twenty-nine  killed. 

Pickett's  fifteen  Virginia  regiments  were  fearfully 
demoralized  by  a  loss  of  two  hundred  and  twenty- 
four  killed.  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  had  each 
about  the  same  number  of  infantry  in  this  battle. 
The  former  had  three  hundred  and  seventy-five  killed, 
the  latter  six  hundred  and  ninety-six. 

When  in  ante-bellum  days,  Governor  Holden,  the 
then  leader  of  the  Democratic  cohorts  in  North  Caro- 


16  Pickett  or  Pettigbew? 

lina,  was  the  editor  of  the  "Raleigh  Standard,"  he 
boasted  that  he  could  kill  and  make  alive.  The 
Richmond  editors  during-  the  war  combining  local 
and  intellectual  advantages  without  boasting  did  the 
same.  They  had  the  same  power  over  reputations 
that  the  Almighty  has  over  physical  matter.  This 
fact  General  Longstreet  soon  learned,  and  the  lesson 
once  learned,  he  made  the  most  of  it.  He  would 
praise  their  pet  troops  and  they  would  praise  him, 
and  between  them  everything  was  lovely.  He  was 
an  able  soldier,  "an  able  writer,  but  an  ungenerous. " 
Troops  from  another  corps,  who  might  be  temporari- 
ly assigned  to  him  were  invariably  either  ignored  or 
slandered. 

The  Gascons  have  long  been  noted  in  history  for 
their  peculiarity  of  uniting  great  boastfulness  with 
great  courage.  It  is  possible  that  some  of  General 
Longstreet's  ancestors  may  have  come  from  South- 
ern France.  His  gasconade,  as  shown  of  late  by  his 
writings,  is  truly  astonishing,  but  his  courage  during 
the  war  was  equally  remarkable.  Whether  his  Vir- 
ginia division  excelled  in  the  latter  of  these  charac- 
teristics as  much  as  it  has  for  thirty-six  years  in  the 
first,  I  will  leave  the  readers  of  this  monograph  to 
decide. 

If  to  every  description  of  a  battle,  a  list  of  casual- 
ties were  added,  not  onh^  would  many  commands, 
both  in  the  army  of  Northern  Virginia  and  in  the 
army  of  the  Potomac,  which  have  all  along  been 
practically  ignored,  come  well  to  the  front ;  but  those 
who  for  years  have  been  reaping  the  glory  that  others 
sowed,  would  have  the  suspicion  that  perhaps  after  all 
they  were  rather  poor  creatures.  Our  old  soldier  friend, 
Col.  John  Smith,  of  Jamestown,  Va.,  to  an  admiring 
crowd,  tells  his  story:    "He  carried  into  action  five 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  17 

hundred  men,  he  charged  a  battery,  great  lanes  were 
swept  through  his  regiment  by  grape  and  canister, 
whole  companies  were  swept  away,  but  his  men  close 
up  and  charge  on,  the  carnage  is  appalling,  but  it 
does  not  appall,  the  guns  are  captured,  but  only  he 
and  ten  men  are  left  to  hold  them.  His  regiment  has 
been  destroyed,  wiped  out,  annihilated,"  and  this  will 
go  for  history.  But  should  Truth  in  the  form  of  a 
list  of  casualties  appear,  it  would  be  seen  that  Colonel 
Smith's  command  had  fifteen  killed  and  sixty  wound- 
ed. That  is  three  in  the  hundred  killed,  and  twelve  in 
the  hundred  wounded.  Some  gallantry  has  been  dis-. 
played,  some  blood  has  been  shed,  but  neither  the 
one  nor  the  other  was  at  all  phenomenal.  "There 
were  brave  men  before  Agamemnon." 

In  some  commands  the  habit  of  ''playing  possum" 
prevailed.  When  a  charge  was  being  made,  if  a  fel- 
low became  badly  frightened,  all  he  had  to  do  was  to 
fall  flat  and  play  dead  until  his  regiment  passed. 
Afterwards  he  would  say  that  the  concussion  from  a 
shell  had  stunned  him.  It  is  needless  to  say  that 
troops  who  were  addicted  to  this  habit  stood  higher 
abroad  if  their  correspondent  could  use  his  pen  well, 
than  the3'  did  in  the  army. 

Was  it  arrogance  or  was  it  ignorance  which  always 
caused  Pickett's  men  to  speak  of  the  troops  which 
marched  on  their  left  as  their  supports?  It  is  true 
that  an  order  was  issued  and  it  was  so  published  to 
them  that  they  should  be  supported  by  a  part  of 
Kill's  Corps,  and  these  troops  were  actually  formed 
in  their  rear.  It  is  equally  true  that  before  the  com- 
mand to  move  forward  was  given  this  order  was 
countermanded  and  these  troops  were  removed  and 
placed  on  their  left.  As  these  movements  were  seen 
of  all  men  this  order  could  not  have  been  the  origin 


£8  Pickett  on  Pettigk^w  v 

of  the  belief  that  Pettigrew  had  to  support  tlit-m 
Was  it  arpoganee  and  self-conceit?  It  looks  like  it... 
That  their  division  stood  to  Leeys  army  in  the  same 
relation  that  the  sun  dovs  to  the  solar  system.  But- 
then  these  people,  if  not  blessed  with  some  other 
qualities,  had  brains  enough  to  know  that  our  army 
eould  fight  and  conquer,  too,  without  their  assist- 
ance. They  did  comparatively  little  fighting  at  Sec- 
ond Manassas  and  Sharpsburg",  had  only  two  men 
killed  at  Fredericksburg,  did  not  fire  a  shot  at  Chan- 
eellorsville,  for  they  were  miles  away,  and  it  is  no  ex- 
aggeration i;o  say  that  they  did  not  kill  twenty  of 
the  enemy  at  Gettysburg. 

The  front  line  of  troops,  the  line  which  does  the 
fighting,  was  always  known  as  "the  line."  The  line 
which  marched  in  rear  to  give  moral  support  and 
practical  assistance-,  if  necessary,  was  in  every  other 
known  body  of  troops  called  the  supporting  line  or 
simply  "supports."  Pickett's  division  had  Kemper's 
on  the  right,  Garnott's  on  the  left,  with  Armistead's 
marching  in  the  rear  of  Garnett's.  Pettigrew's  form- 
ed one  line  with  Lane's  and  Scales'  brigades  of  Pen- 
der's division,  under  Trimble,  marching  in  the  rear 
of  its  right  as  supports.  How  many  supporting  lines 
did  Pickett's  people  want?  The  Federals  are  said  oc- 
casionally to  have  used  three.  Even  one  with  us  was 
the  exception.  Ordinarily  one  brigade  of  each  divis- 
ion was  held  in  reserve,  while  the  others  were  fight- 
ing, in  order  to  repair  any  possible  disaster. 

To  show  how  a  falsehood  can  be  fortified  by  Art,  I 
will  state  that  I  visited  the  Centennial  Exposition  at 
Philadelphia  and  there  saw  a  very  large  and  really 
fine  painting  representing  some  desperate  fighting  at 
the  so-called  "Bloody  Angle."  Clubbing  with  mus- 
kets, jabbing  with  bayonets  and  firing  of  cannon  at 


Pickett  or  Petiu^ew?  19 

short  range,  was  the  order  of  the  day.  Of  course  I 
knew  that  the  subject  of  the  painting  was  founded 
upon  a  myth;  but  had  always  been  under  the  mi- 
ssion that  while  many  of  Pickett's  and  a  few  of 
'  igrew's  men  were  extracting  the  extremities  of 
•certain  undergarments  to  be  used  as  white  flags,  a 
part  of  them  were  keeping  up  a  scattering  fire.  While 
before  the  painting  a  gentleman  standing  near  me 
exclaimed:  "Tut!  I "11  agree  to  oat  all  the  Yankees 
Pickett  killed."  Entering  into  conversation  with 
him  1  learned  that  he  had  been  at  Gettysburg,  had 
fought  in  Gordon's  Georgia  brigade,  and  that  he  did 
not  have  a  very  exalted  opinion  of  Picket's  men.  As 
our  Georgian  friend  was  neither  remarkably  large 
nor  hungry-looking,  several  persons  hearing  his  re- 
mark stared  at  him  That  he  did  exaggerate  to 
some  extent  is  possible,  for  I  have  since  heard  that 
among  the  dead  men  in  blue,  near  where  Armistead 
fell,  there  were  six  who  had  actually  been  killed  by 
musket  balls. 

Col.  Fox,  of  Albany,  N.  1.,  has  published  a  work 
entitled,  "Regimental  Losses."  In  it  is  seen  a  list  of 
the  twenty-seven  Confederate  regiments  which  had 
most  men  killed  and  wounded  at  Gettysburg.  Read- 
ers of  the  histories  of  Pollard,  Cooke  and  McCabe  will 
be  rather  surprised  to  find  only  two  Virginia  regi- 
ments on  this  list.  Those  who  are  familiar  with  bat- 
tlefield reports  will  not  be  surprised  to  see  that  thir- 
teen of  these  regiments  were  from  North  Carolina 
and  four  from  Mississippi,  Three  of  the  last  named 
and  live  of  the  North  Carolina,  regiments  met  with 
their  loss  under  Pettigrew. 

The  North  Carolina  brigade  had  in  killed  and 
wounded  eleven  hundred  and  five,  which  is  an  aver- 
age to   the  regiment  of  two  hundred  and  seventy- 


20  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

six.  There  was  not  a  Confederate  regiment  at  either 
First  or  Second  Manassas  which  equalled  this  aver- 
age, and  no  Virginia  regiment  ever  did. 

This-  brigade  on  the  first  day  met  those  of  Riddle- 
and  Meredith,  which  were  considered  the  flower  of 
their  corps,  and  many  old  soldiers  say  that  this  corps 
—the  First — did  the  fiercest  fighting  on  that  day  of 
which  they  ever  had  any  experience,  and  the  official 
records  sustain  them  in  this  belief.  Biddle's  brigade 
was  composed  of  one  New  York  and  three  Pennsyl- 
vania regiments.  Meredith's,  known  as  the  "Iron" 
brigade,  was  formed  of  five  regiments  from  the  west. 
(By  the  way.  the  commander  of  this  body,  Gen.  Solo- 
mon Meredith,  was  a  native  of  North  Carolina,  as 
was  also  Gen.  Jno.  Gibbon,  the  famous  division  com- 
mander in  the  second  corps,  and  North  Carolina  luck 
followed  them,  as  they  were  severely  wounded  in  this 
battle.)  Pettigrew's  brigade,  with  a  little  assistance 
from  that  of  Brockenborough,  after  meeting  these 
troops  forced  them  to  give  ground  and  continued  for 
several  hours  to  slowly  drive  them  'till  their  ammu- 
nition became  nearly  exhausted.  When  this  occurred 
the  Federals  had  reached  a  ridge  from  behind  which 
they  could  be  supplied  with  the  necessary  ammuni- 
tion. But  not  so  with  Heth's  troops.  The  field  was 
so  open,  the  contending  lines  so  close  together,  and 
as  every  house  and  barn  in  the  vicinity  was  filled  with 
sharp-shooters,  they  could  not  be  supplied  and  were 
in  consequence  relieved  by  two  of  Pender's  brigades. 
In  the  meantime  the  enemy  was  re-enforced  by  a  fresh 
brigade  of  infantry  and  several  wonderfully  efficient 
batteries  of  artillery,  and  so  when  the  brigades  of 
the  "right  division''  made  their  advance  they  suf- 
fered very  severely  before  their  opponents  could  be 
driven  from  the  field.    Meredith's  brigade  this  day 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  21 

6  killed  and  wounded  and  2GG  missing;  Bid- 
642  killed  and  wounded  and  255  missing'.  The 
loss  in  Brockenborough's  Virginia  was  148.  For  the 
whole  l,a; tic.  as  said  before,  Pettigrew's  killed  and 
wounded  amounted  to  1,105;  probably  two-thirds  of 
vhis  loss  occurred  on  this  day. 

These  facts  and  figures  are  matters  of  record,  and 
with  these  records  accessible  to  all  men,  Swinton, 
a  Northern  historian,  in  the  brilliant  description  he 
•j-ives  of  the  assault  on  the  third  day  says  that 
"Heth's  division,  commanded  by  Pettigrew,  were  all 
raw  troops,  who  were  only  induced  to  make  the 
charge  by  being  told  that  they  had  militia  to  fight 
and  that  when  the  fire  was  opened  upon  them  they 
raised  the  shout,  'The  Army  of  the  Potomac!  The 
Army  of  the  Potomac!'  broke  and  fled."  As  after 
the  battle  the  Virginia  division  had  the  guarding  of 
several  thousand  Federal  prisoners,  captured  by 
Carolinians  and  Georgians,  they  are  probably  re- 
sponsible for  this  statement. 

But  to  return  to  the  fight  of  the  first  daj^.  The 
Honorable  Joseph  Davis,  then  a  Captain  in  the  47th, 
late  Supreme  Court  Judge  of  North  Carolina,  speak- 
ing of  this  day's  battle,  says:  "The  advantage  was 
all  on  the  Confederate  side,  and  I  aver  that  this  was 
greatly,  if  not  chiefly,  due  to  Pettigrew's  brigade  and 
its  brave  commander.  The  bearing  of  that  knightly 
soldier  and  elegant  scholar  as  he  galloped  along 
the  lines  in  the  hottest  of  the  fight,  cheering  on  his 
men,  cannot  be  effaced  from  my  memory." 

Captain  Young,  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  a 
staff  officer  of  this  division,  says:  "No  troops  could 
have  fought  better  than  did  Pettigrew's  brigade  on 
this  day.  and  1  will  testify  on  the  experience  of  many 
hard  fought  battles,  that  I  never  saw  any  fight  so 


22  Pickett  ok  Pettigrew? 

well."  Davis'  brigade  consisted  Of  bhe55th  North  Caro- 
lina, the  2nd,  11th  and  42nd  Mississippi.  Thellthwas 
on  detached  service  that  day.  The  three  winch  fought 
also  faced  splendid  troops.  Here,  too,  was  a  square 
svand  ii|>  li'viii  in  the  open.  During  the  battle  these 
three  had,  besides  the  usual  proportion  of  wounded, 
one  hundred  and  forty-eight  killed.  Only  two  dead 
men  were  lacking  to  these  three  regiments  to  make 
their  loss  equal  to  thai  often  regiments  of  Pickett's 
"magnificent  Virginians." 

Cutler's  brigade  composed  of  one  Pennsylvania 
and  four  New  York  regiments  was  opposed  to  that 
of  Davis,  and  its  loss  this  day  was  '302  killed  and 
wounded  and  363  missing,  and  many  o£  the  missing' 
were  subsequently  found  to  have  been  killed  or  severe- 
ly wounded.  With  varying  success  these  two  brig- 
ades fought  all  the  morning.  The  Federals  finally 
gave  way  ;  bu1  three  of  their  regiments,  after  retreat- 
ing for  some  distance,  took  up  a  new  line.  Two  of 
them  left  the  field  and  went  to  town,  as  the  day  was 
hot  and  the  fire  hotter.  It  is  said  they  visited 
Gettysburg  to  get  a  little  ice  water.  However  that 
may  be,  they  soon  returned. and  fought  well  'till their 
whole  line  gave  way. 

The  ground  on  which  these  troops  fought  lay  north 
of  the  railroad  cut  and  was  severed  hundred  yards 
from  where  Pettigrew's  brigade  was  engaged  with 
Meredith's  and  Riddle's.  As  Rode's  division  began 
to  appear  upon  the  field  Davis'  brigade  was  removed 
to  the  south  side  of  the  cut  and  placed  in  front  of 
Stone's  Pennsylvania  brigade  (which,  having  just 
arrived,  had  filled  the  interval  between  Cutler  and 
Meredith)  but  did  no  more  fighting  that  day.  After 
securing;  ammunition  it  followed  the  front  line  to  the 
town.    Had  the  interval  between  Daniel's  andScales' 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  23 

been  filler]  by  Thomas',  which  was  held  in  reserve, 
neither  of  these  Carolina  brigades  would  have  suffer- 
ed so  severely.  The  2nd  and  42nd  Mississippi  and 
55th  North  Carolina  of  Davis'  for  the  brittle  had  095 
killed  and  wounded,  and  about  two-thirds  of  this  oc- 
curred in  this  first  day's  fight. 

To  illustrate  the  individual  gallantry  of  these 
troops  I  will  relate  an  adventure  which  came  under 
my  observation.  It  must  be  borne  in  mine!  that  this 
brigade  had  been  doing  fierce  and  bloody  fighting 
since  nine  o'clock  and  at  this  time  not  only  its 
numerical  loss  but  its  per  centage  of  killed  and 
wounded  was  greater  than  that  which  Pickett's 
troops  had  to  submit  to  two  days  later,  and  that  it 
was  then  waiting  to  be  relieved.  Early  in  the  after- 
noon of  this  day  my  division  (Rodes')  arrived  upon 
the  field  by  the  Carlisle  road  and  at  once  went  into 
action.  My  brigade  (Daniels')  was  on  the  right,  and 
after  doing  some  sharp  fighting,  we  came  in  sight  of 
Heth's  line,  which  was  lying  at  right  angles  to  ours 
as  we  approached.  The  direction  of  our  right  regi- 
ments had  to  be  changed  in 'order  that  we  might 
move  in  front  of  their  left  brigade,  which  was  Davis'. 
The  Federal  line,  or  lines,  for  my  impression  is  there 
were  two  or  more  of  them,  were  also  lying  in  the  open 
field,  the  interval  between  the  opposing  lines  being 
about  three  hundreds  yards.  Half  way  between  these 
lines  wasanother,  which  ran  by  a  house.  Thisline  was 
made  of  dead  and  wounded  Federals,  who  lay  "as 
■k  as  autumnal  leaves  which  strew  the  brooks  in 
Vallambrosa."  It  was  about  here  that  the  incident 
occurred.  A  Pennsylvania  regiment  of  Stone's  brig- 
ade had  then  two  flags — state  and  national — with 
their  guard  a  short  distance  in  front  of  them.  One 
of  these  colors  Sergt.  Frank  Price,  of  the  42nd  Miss- 


24  Pickett  ob  Pettigbew? 

• 
issippi  and  half  a  dozen  of  his  comrades  determined 
to  capture.  Moving  on  hands  and  knees  'till  they 
had  nearly  reached  the  desired  object,  they  suddenly 
rose,  charged  and  overcame  the  guard,  captured  the 
flag  and  were  rapidly  making  off  with  it,  when  its 
owners  fired  upon  them,  all  were  struck  down  but  the 
Sergeant,  and  as  he  was  making  for  the  house  above 
referred  to  a  young  staff  officer  i^i  my  command, 
having  carried  some  message  to  Eeth's  people,  was 
returning  by  a  shorl  cut  between  the  lines,  and  seeing 
a  man  with  a  strange  flag,  without  noticing  his  uni- 
form he  thought  he,  too,  would  gel  a  little  glory 
along  with  some  bunting.  Dismounting  among1  the 
dead  and  wounded  he  picked  up  and  fired  several 
muskets  at  Price;  but  was  fortunate  enough  to  miss 
him.  Sergeanl  Price  survived  the  war.  His  home 
was  in  Carrollton,  Mississippi.  Recently  the  informa- 
tion came  from  one  of  his  sons,  a  name-sake  of  the 
writer,  that  his  gallant  father  was  no  more;  he  had 
crossed  the  river  and  was  resting  under  the  shade  of 
the  trees.  The  parents  of  Mr.  Price  were  natives  of 
bhe  old  North  Mate.  Does  any  one  wiio  has  made  a 
study  of  Pickett's  "magnificent  division."  suppose 
that  even  on  the  morning  of  the  5th.  when  only  eight 
hundred  of  the  nearly  or  quite  six  thousand  who  had 
engaged  in  battle  reported  Cor  duty,  sad  and  depress- 
ed as  they  were,  it  could  have  furnished  heroes  like 
Price  and  his  companions  for  such  an  undertaking. 
as  in  spite  of  friends  and  foes  was  successfully  accom- 
plished? General  Davis  says  that  rx^vy  field  officer 
in  his  brigade  was  either  killed  or  wounded.  My  old 
classmate,  Major  John  Jones,  was^lie  only  one  left 
in  the  North  Carolina  brigade,  and  lie  was  killed  in 
the  next  spring's  campaign. 

The  following-  extract  is  taken  from  a  description 


Pickett  ok  PettigrewV  25 

of  the  assault  by  Colonel  Taylor,  of  General  Lee's 
staff :  "It  is  needless  to  say  a  word  here  of  the  heroic 
conduct  of  Pickett's  division,  that  charge  has  already 
passed  into  history  as'one  of  the  world's  great  deeds 
of  arms.'  While  doubtless  many  brave  men  of  other 
commands  reached  the  cr  I  he  heights,  this  was 

the  only  organized  body  which  entered  the  works  of 
the  enen  i y . ' '  Picket  t  's  left  an  '1  Pettigrew's  and  Trim- 
ble's right  entered  the  works.  Men  from  six  brigades 
were  there.  Which  command  had  most  representa- 
tives there  is  a  disputed  point.  As  to  the  superior 
organization  of  Pickett's  men  what  did  that  amount 
to?  In  the  nature  of  things  not  a  brigade  on  the 
field  was  in  a  condition  to  repel  a  determined  attack. 

Just  before  the  final  rush  two  bodies  of  Federals 
moved  out  on  the  field  and  opened  fire,  the  one  upon 
our  right  the  other  upon  the  left.  The  loss  inflicted 
upon  our  people  by  these  Vermonters  and  New  York- 
ers was  very  great,  and  not  being  able  to  defend 
themselves,  there  was  on  the  part  of  the  survivors  a 
natural  crowding  to  I  he  <•,  .,,  ,  e.  The  commander  of 
a  Federal  brigade  in  his  report  says,  ''Twenty  battle 
flags  were  captured  in  a  space  of  one  hundred  yards 
square."  This  means  that  crowded  within  a  space 
extending  <mly  one  hundred  yards  there  were  the 
remnants  of  more  than  twenty  regiments.  But  Col. 
Taylor  says  that  Pickett's  division  "was  the  only  or- 
ganized body  which  entered  the  enemy's  works." 

The  late  General  Trimble  said:  "It  will  be  easily 
understood  that  as  Pickett's  line  was  overlapped  by 
the  Federal  lines  on  his  right,  and  Pettigrew's  and 
Trimble's  front  by  the  Federal  lines  on  their  left,  each 
of  these  commands  had  a  distinct  and  separate  dis- 
charge of  artillery  and  musketry  to  encounter,  the 
one  as  incessant  as  the  other,  although  Pickett's  men 


26  Pickett  or  Pettigkew? 

felt  its  intensity  sooner  than  the  others,  and  were  the 
first  to  be  crushed  under  a  tire  before  which  no  troops 
could  live.    While  Pettigrew  and  Trimble  suffered  as 
much  or  more  before  the  close  because  longer  under 
fire,  in  consequeneeof  marchingfarther."  Andagain  : 
"Both   Northern   and   Southern  descriptions  of  the 
battle  of  Gettysburg,  in  the  third  day's  contest ,  have 
without  perhaps  a  single  exception,  down  to  the  pres- 
ent time,  given  not  only  most  conspicuous  promi- 
nence to  General  Pickett's  division,  but  generally  by 
the  language  used  have  created  the  impression  among 
those  not  personally  acquainted  with  the  events  of 
the  day  that  Pickett's  men  did  all  the  hard  fighting, 
suffered  the  most  severely  and  failed  in  their  charge, 
because  not  duly  and  vigorously  supported  by  the 
troopson  their  right  and  left.    It  might  withasmuch 
truth  be  sa  id  that  Pettigrew  and  Trimble  failed  in  their 
charge,   because  unsupported  by  Pickett,  who  had 
been  driven  back  in  the  crisis  of  their  charge  and  was 
no  aid  to  them." 

Some  time  ago  Gen.  Fitz  Lee  wrote  a  life  of  his 
uncle,  (ten.  Robert  E.  Lee,  and  in  a  notice  of  this 
book  the  courteous  and  able  editor  of  a  leading  Rich- 
mond newspaper  gives  a  fine  description  of  the  part 
borne  by  Pickett's  division  in  Longstreet's  assault 
on  the  third  day.  but  has  little  or  nothing  to  say 
about  the  other  troops  engaged  ;  whereupon  a  citizen 
of  this  State  (North  Carolina)  wrote  and  wished 
to  know  if  there  were  any  North  Carolinians  upon 
the  field  when  Pickett's  men  so  greatly  distinguished 
themselves.  In  answer  the  editor  admits  that  he  had 
forgotten  all  about  the  other  troops  engaged,  and 
says:  "We  frankly  confess  that  our  mind  has  been 
from  the  war  until  now  so  fully  possessed  of  the  idea 
that  the  glory  of  the  charge  belonged  exclusively  to 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  27 

kett's  division  thai  we  overlooked  entirely  the 
just  measure  of  en  ••lit  that  Gen.  Fitz  Lee  has  award- 
ed other  commands."  Whereupon  a  correspondent 
of  his  paper,  curiously  enough,  is  in  high  spirits  over 
this  answer,  and  referring  to  it  says:  "It  is  especial- 
ly st  rong  in  what  it  omits  to  say.  The  picture  of  the 
charge,  as  given  by  Swinton,  as  seen  from  the  other 
side,  would  have  come  in  perfectly  ;  but  it  would  have 
wounded  our  North  Carolina  friends  and  was  wisely 
left  out." 

Now,  as  to  the  impertinence  of  this  correspondent 
who  refers  to  what  Swinton  said,  there  is  a  tempta- 
t  ion  to  say  something  a  little  bitter,  but  as  the  writer 
has  made  it  a  rule  to  preserve  a  judicial  tone  as  far 
as  possible,  and  in  presenting  facts  to  let  them  speak 
for  themselves,  he  refrains  from  gratifying  a  very 
natural  inclination.  Probably  with  no  thought  of 
malice  Swinton, in  making  a  historical  flourish,  sacri- 
ficed truth  for  the  sake  of  a  striking  antithesis.  This 
of  course  lie  knew.  Equally  of  course  this  is  whatthe 
correspondent  did  not  know.  No  one  ever  accused 
John  Swinton  of  being  a  fool. 

A  distinguished  writer  in  a  recent  discussion  of  this 
assault  says  :  "History  is  going  forever  to  ask  Gen. 
Longstreet  why  lie  did  not  obey  Gen.  Lee's  orders 
and  have  Hood's  and  McLaw's  divisions  at  Pickett's 
back  to  make  good  the  work  his  heroic  men  had 
done.''  Not  so.  History  is  not  going  to  ask  child- 
ish questions. 

A  Virginian  writer  in  closing  his  description  of  this 
assault  has  recently  said :  "Now,  this  remark  must 
occur  to  every  one  in  this  connection.  Pickett's 
break  through  the  enemy's  line,  led  by  Armistead, 
was  iii"  aotable  and  prodigious  thing  about  the 
whole  battle  of  Gettysburg.''     If  so,  why  so? 


28  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

The  commanders  of  Wright's  Georgia  and  Wilcox  's 
Alabama  brigades  report  that  when  fighting  on 
Loiigstreet's  left  on  the  afternoon  of  the  second; 
day,  they  carried  the  crest  of  Cemetery  Ridge  and 
captured  twenty-eight  cannon.  The  truth  of  this 
report  is  confirmed  by  General  Donbleday,  who 
says:  "Wright  attained  the  crest  and  Wilcox  was 
almost  in  line  with  him.  Wilcox  claims  to  have  cap- 
tured twenty  guns  and  Wright  eight." 

In  another  place  he  says,  in  speaking  of  a  certain 
officer :  ' '  On  his  retu  rn  late  in  the  d ay  he  saw  Sickle '  & 
whole  line  driven  in  and  found  Wright's  rebel  brigade 
established  on  the  crest  barring  his  way  back." 

Late  in  the  same  afternoon  over  on  our  left  in 
Johnson's  assault  upon  Gulp's  Hill,  Stewart's  brig- 
ade carried  the  position  in  their  front  and  held  it  all 
night.  Also  late  the  same  afternoon  two  of  Early's 
brigades,  Hoke's  North  Carolina  and  Hay's  Louisi- 
ana, carried  East  Cemetery  Heights,  took  many  pris- 
oners and  sent  them  to  the  rear,  several  colors,  and 
captured  or  silenced  twenty  guns  (spiking  some  of 
them  before  they  fell  back).  And  a  part  of  them 
maintained  their  position  for  over  an  hour,  some  of 
them  having  advanced  as  far  as  the  Baltimore  Pike. 
It  is  an  undoubted  fact  that  even  after  their  brigades 
had  fallen  back  parts  of  the  9th  Louisiana  and  6th 
North  Carolina,  under  Major  Tate,  held  their  position 
at  the  wall  on  the  side  of  the  hill  (repelling  several 
attacks)  for  an  hour,  thus  holding  open  the  gate 
to  Cemetery  Heights,  and  it  does  seem  that  under 
cover  of  night  this  gate  might  have  been  used  and 
the  Ridge  occupied  by  a  strong  force  of  our  troops 
with  slight  loss. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  third  day  the  men  who  were 
in  front  of  the  narrow  space  abandoned  by  the  enemy, 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  29 

and  some  who  were  on  their  right  and  left,  in  a  disor- 
ganized mass  of  about  one  thousand,  crowded  into 
this  space  for  safety.  (Less  than  fifty  followed  Ar- 
mistead  to  the  abandoned  gun.)  When,  after  about 
ten  minutes,  they  were  attacked  they  either  surren- 
dered or  fled.  No  one  knows  what  State  had  most 
representatives  in  this  ''crowd"  as  the  Federal  Col. 
Hall  calls  them,  but  the  man  who  wrote  that  they 
did  "the  notable  and  prodigious  thing  about  the 
whole  battle  of  Gettysburg"  thinks  he  knows.  All 
soldiers  now  know,  and  many  knew  then,  that  in 
sending  9,000  or  10,000  men  to  attack  the  army  of 
the  Potomac,  concentrated  and  strongly  fortified, 
there  was  no  reasonable  hope  of  success. 

The  thing  of  most  interest  to  readers  of  history  is 
the  question  to  wmich  of  the  troops  engaged  on  that 
ill-starred  field  is  to  be  awarded  the  palm  for  heroic 
endurance  and  courageous  endeavor.  To  know  the 
per  centage  of  killed  and  wounded  of  the  different 
troops  engaged  in  this  assault,  is  to  know  which  are 
entitled  to  most  honor.  Some  of  the  troops  in  Petti- 
grew" s  division  met  with  a  loss  of  over  60  per  cent. 
The  per  centage  for  Pickett's  division  was  not  quite 
28.  The  11th  Mississippi,  as  said  elsewhere,  was  the 
only  regiment  in  Pettigrew's  or  Trimble's  divisions, 
which  entered  the  assault  fresh.  Most  of  the  other 
troops  of  these  commands  had  been  badly  cut  up  in 
the  first  day's  battle,  and  the  exact  number  they  car- 
ried into  the  assault  is  not  known,  but  entering  fresh 
the  number  taken  in  by  the  Eleventh  is  known,  and 
the  number  it  lost  in  killed  and  wounded  is  reported 
by  Dr.  Guild.  Consequently  there  cannot  be  the 
slightest  doubt  that  its  per  centage  of  loss  for  the  as- 
sault was  at  least  60.  It  is  fair  to  presume  that  the 
per  centage  in  the  other  regiments  of  its  brigade  was 


SO  Pkkett  or  Pettigrew? 

equally  great.  It  is  also  fair  to  presume  that  the 
brigade  immediately  on  its  right,  which  went  some- 
what farther  and  stayed  somewhat  longer  under  the 
same  Terrific  fire,  lost  as  heavily. 

If  the  charge  of  the  Light  Brigade  at  Balaklava  in 
which  it  lost  35  per  cent,  has  rendered  it  famous,  why 
should  not  the  charge  of  Davis1  brigade  in  which  it 
lost  60  per  cent,  render  it  equally  famous?  And  if 
the  blundering  stupidity  of  the  order  to  charge  has 
excited  our  sympathy  in  behalf  of  the  British  cavalry, 
is  there  not  enough  of  that  element  in  the  order  to 
the  infantry  brigade  to  satisfy  the  most  exacting? 
And  if  Davis'  brigade  deserves  fame  why  do  not  all  the 
brigades — with  one  exception — of  Pettigrew  and  Trim- 
ble also  deserve  it  ? 

Col.  W.  E.  Potter,  of  the  12th  New  Jersey,  Smyth's 
brigade,  Hay's  division,  in  an  address  delivered  sev- 
sral  years  ago,  after  speaking  in  very  complimentary 
terms  of  the  conduct  of  the  North  Carolina  and  Miss- 
issippi brigades  of  Pettigrew's  division,  says :  "Again 
a  larger  number  of  the  enemy  was  killed  and  wound- 
ed in  front  of  Smyth  than  in  front  of  Webb.  Of  this, 
besides  the  general  recollection  of  all  of  us  who  were 
then  present,  I  have  special  evidence.  I  rode  over  the 
field  covered  by  the  lire  of  these  two  brigades  on  the 
morning  of  Sunday,  July  5th,  in  company  with  Lt. 
Col.  Chas.  H.  Morgan,  the  chief  of  staff  of  Gen.  Han- 
cock, and  Capt.  Hazard.  As  we  were  passing  the 
front  of  Smyth's  brigade,  Col.  Morgan  said  to  Haz- 
ard :  'They  may  talk  as  they  please  about  the  hard 
lighting  in  front  of  Gibbon,  but  there  are  more  dead 
men  here  than  anywhere  in  our  front.'  To  this  con- 
clusion Hazard  assented." 

After  the  frightful  ordeal  they  had  been  through  it 
is  not  to  the  discredit  of  any  of  the  troops  engaged 


Pickett  or  Pettigkew?  31 

to  say  that  when  they  reached  the  breastworks,  or 
their  vicinity,  there  was  no  fight  left  in  them,  for 
there  is  a  limit  to  human  endurance.  This  limit  had 
been  reached,  and  this  is  shown  by  the  fact  thatthere 
was  not  an  organization  upon  the  field  which,  when 
an  attack  was  made  on  its  flank,  made  the  slightest 
attempt  to  change  front  to  meet  it,  but  either  sur- 
rendered or  tied.  This  being  the  case  the  only  thing 
of  interest  is  to  decide  which  brigades  received  the 
most  punishment  before  this  limit  was  reached. 

During  the  recent  discussion  in  the  Richmond  news- 
papers as  to  whether  any  of  the  North  Carolina 
troops  reached  a  point  at  or  near  theenemy's  works, 
the  most  prominent  writer  on  the  negative  side  of  the 
question  gives  extracts  from  the  reports  of  certain 
participants  in  the  charge  to  corroborate  his  opinion, 
and  by  a  singular  oversight  gives  one  from  the  re- 
port of  Major  John  Jones,  then  commanding  Petti- 
grew's  own  brigade,  who  says :  "The  brigade  dashei  i 
on,  and  many  had  reached  the  wall  when  we  received 
a  deadly  volley  from  the  left."  To  have  reached  the 
stone  wall  on  the  left  of  the  salient,  they  must  neces- 
sarily  have  advanced  considerably  farther  than  any 
troops  on  the  held.  And  yet  the  above  writer  in  the 
face  of  Major  Jones'  testimony,  thinks  that  neither 
his  nor  any  North  Carolina  troops  were  there.  But 
then  he  quotes  from  the  Federal  Col.  Hall,  "who,"  he 
says,  "gives  a  list  of  the  flags  captured  by  his  com- 
mand when  the  charge  was  made."  Amongst  them 
he  mentions  that  of  the  22nd  North  Carolina,  and 
says:  "If  this  can  lie  accepted  as  true  it  of  course 
ends  all  controversy  "  Col.  Hall  reports  that  at  the 
close  of  tlie  assault  his  brigade  captured  the  flags  of 
the  14th,  18th,  19th  and  57th  Virginia,  and  that  of 
tlie  22nd    North  Carolina.     Webb   reports  that  his 


32  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

command  captured  six  flags,  but  does  not  name  the 
regiments  to  which  they  belonged.  Heth  captured 
those  of  the  1st,  7th  and  28th  Virginia.  Carroll's 
brigade  those  of  the  34th  North  Carolina  and  38th 
Virginia.  Smyth's  brigade  those  of  1st  and  14th 
Tennessee,  16th  and  52nd  North  Carolina  and  live 
others,  the  names  not  given,  and  Sherrill's  brigade 
captured  three,  the  names  not  given.  Thus  we  have 
the  names  of  eight  Virginia,  four  North  Carolina  and 
two  Tennessee  andfourteen  reported  captured,  names 
not  given.  In  all  twenty-eight,  which  accounts  for 
Pickett's  fifteen,  Scales'  five,  Pettigrew's  own  three 
and  Archer's  four.  One  of  Pettigrew's  and  one  of 
Archer's  having  been  carried  back,  some  of  the  other 
troops  must  have  lost  one.  If  official  reports  which 
say  that  the  flags  of  the  1st  and  14th  Tennessee,  and 
of  the  16th,  22nd,  34th  and  52nd  North  Carolina 
were  captured,  cannot  be  accepted  as  true  and  thus 
"end  all  controversy,"  perhaps  a  re-statement  of  the 
fact  that  twenty-eight  colors  were  taken  at  the  close 
of  the  assault  may  do  so,  for  as  said  above  the 
Virginia  division  had  only  fifteen  flags. 

To  show  the  disproportion  that  existed  at  the  close 
of  the  fight  between  the  numbers  of  men  and  flags, 
one  officer  reports  that  his  regiment  charged  upon 
the  retreating  rebels  and  captured  five  regimental 
battle-flags  and  over  forty  prisoners,  and  a  brigade 
commander  speaking  of  the  ground  at  and  in  front 
of  the  abandoned  works,  says :  "Twenty  battle-flags 
were  captured  in  a  space  of  100  yards  square." 

There  is  one  fact  that  should  be  remembered  in  con- 
nection with  this  assault,  namely :  That  of  ail  breast- 
works a  stone  wall  inspires  most  confidence  and  its 
defenders  will  generally  fire  deliberately  and  accur- 
ately and  cling  to  it  tenaciously. . 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  o3 

[Tie  stone  wall  ran  from  the  left  and  in  front  o" 
Line's,  Davis'  and  Pettigrew's  North  Carolina  brig- 
3  and  ended  where  the  right  of  the  last  named  rest- 
ed at  the  close  of  the  assault.  At  this  point  works 
made  of  rails  covered  with  earth  began  and  ran 
straight  to  the  front  lor  some  distance  and  then 
made  a  sharp  turn  to  the  left  in  the  direction  of 
Round  Top,  continuing  in  nearly  a  straight  line  be- 
j  ond  Pickett's  right.  It  was  a  short  distance  to  the 
right  of  the  outer  corner  of  these  works  when  Webb's 
men  gave  way. 

Several  years  ago  there  was  published  in  the  Phila- 
delphia ''Times,"  an  article  by  Col.  W.  W.  Wood,  of 
Armistead's  brigade,  giving  his  recollections  of  this 
affair.    As  the  writer  had  very  naively  made  several 
confessions,  which  I  had  never  seen  made  by  any 
other  of  Pickett's  men,  and  had  evidently  intended 
to  speak  truthfully,  I  put  the  paper  aside  for  future 
reference.    I  shall  now  make  several  selections  from 
it  and  endeavor  to  criticise  them  fairly.     Our  artillery 
crowned  the  ridge,  and  behind   it  sheltered  by  the 
hills  lay  our  infantry :  "The  order  to  go  forward  was 
obeyed  with  alacrity  and  cheerfulness, for  we  believed 
that  the  battle  was  practically  over,  and  that  we  had 
nothing  to  do  but  to  march  unopposed  to  Cemetery 
Heights  and  occupy  them.    While  making  the  ascent 
it  was  seen  that  the  supports  to  our  right  and  left 
flanks  were  not  coming  forward  as  we  had  been  told 
they   would.    Mounted    officers    were    seen    dashing 
frantically  up  and  down  their  lines,  apparently  en- 
deavoring to  get  them  to  move  forward,  but  ■  we  could 
sec  that  they  would  not  move.    Their  failure  to  sup- 
port us  was  discouraging,  but  it  did  not  disheart- 
en us.     Some  of  our  men  cursed  them  for  cowards, 
etc."    So  Ear  no  great  courage  had  been  required. 


34  Pickett  or  Pettigrew?' 

But  what  troops  were  they  that  Pickett's  people 
were  cursing  for  Howards?  On  the  right  they  were 
Perry's  Florida  and  Wilcox's  Alabama,  under  the 
command  of  the  latter  General.  Their  orders  were 
that  when  twenty  minutes  had  elapsed  after  the  line 
had  started  they  were  to  march  straight  ahead  and 
repel  any  body  of  flankers  who  should  attack  the 
right.  This  order  was  obeyed  to  the  letter.  At  the 
required  time  they  moved  forward  and  kept  moving-. 
About  where  Pickett  should  have  been  (Pickett's  line 
had  previously  obliqued  to  the  left)  not  a  Confeder- 
ate was  to  be  seen.  They  kept  on 'and  single  hand- 
ed ami  alone  attacked  the  whole  Federal  army,  then 
exulting  in  victory .  01"  course  they  were  repul sed ,  but 
when  they  knew  they  were  beaten  did  they  surrender 
that  they  might  be  sheltered  in  Northern  prisons  from 
Northern  bullets ?  Not  they.  They  simply  fell  back 
and  made  their  way,  as  best  they  could,  to  the  Con- 
federate lines.  Is  there  any  significance  in  the  facts 
that  shortly  after  this  battle  Gen.  Wilcox  was  pro- 
moted and  (Jen.  Pickett  and  his  men  were  sent  out  of 
the  army  ?  What  other  troops  were  tl  i<  \y  whom  these 
men  were  cursing  for  being  cowards?  Some  of  them 
were  the  choice  troops  of  A.  P.  Hill's  old  division,  ever 
famous  for  its  lighting  qualities,  others  were  the  sur- 
vivors of  Archer's  brigade  of  gallant  Tennesseans, 
Mississippians,  brave  and  impetuous,  North  Caro- 
linians, always  steady,  always  true.  These  men  were 
cursed  as  cowards,  and  by  Pickett's  Virginians! 
Achilles  cursed  by  Thersites !  A  lion  barked  at  by  a 
cur. 

But  there  was  one  brigade,  and  only  one,  in  Petti- 
grew's  division  which  failed  in  the  hour  of  trial.  It 
was  from  their  own  State,  and  had  once  been  an  effi- 
cient body  of  soldiers,  and   even  on  this  occasion 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  35 

something  might  be  said  in  its  defense.  But  had  this 
not  been  the  case,  to  the  men  of  Armistead's  brigade 
(who  were  doing  the  cursing)  the  memory  of  their 
own  behavior  at  Sharpsburg  and  Shepherdstown 
should  have  had  the  effect  of  making  them  charita- 
ble towards  the  shortcomings  of  others. 

Let  us  allow  the  Colonel  to  continue:  "From  the 
time  the  charge  began  unto  this  moment,  not  a  shot 
had  been  fired  at  us  nor  had  we  been  able  to  see,  be- 
cause of  the  density  of  the  smoke,  which  hung  over 
the  battlefield  like  a  pall,  that  there  was  an  enemy  in 
front  of  us.  The  smoke  now  lifted  from  our  front 
and  there,  right  before  us,  scarcely  two  hundred 
yards  away,  stood  Cemetery  Heights  in  awful 
grandeur.  At  their  base  was  a  double  line  of  Federal 
infantry  and  several  pieces  of  artillery, posted  behind 
si  one  walls,  and  to  the  right  and  left  of  them  both 
artillery  and  infantry  supports  were  hurriedly  com- 
ing up.  The  situation  was  indeed  appalling,  though 
it  did  no1  seem  to  appall.  The  idea  of  retreat  did 
not  st 'i »m  to  occur  to  any  one.  Having  obtained  a 
view  of  the  enemy's  position,  the  men  now  advanced  at 
the  double  quick,  and  for  the  first  time  since  the  charge 
began  they  gave  utterance  to  the  famous  Confeder- 
yell."  80  it  seems  that  all  that  has  been  spoken 
and  written  about  their  having  marched  one  thous- 
and yards  under  the  fire  of  one  hundred  cannon  and 
twenty  thousand  muskets,  is  the  veriest  bosh  and 
nonsense.  They  marched  eight  hundred  yards  as 
safely  as  if  on  parade.  When  the  smoke  lifted  they 
charged  for  two  hundred  yards  towards  the  breast- 
works; the  left  only  reached  it — the  right  never  did, 
but  lay  down  in  the  field  and  there  and  then  fifteen 
hundred  of  them  ''threw  down  their  muskets  for  the 
war.".    Colonel  Wood  continues:    "The  batteries  to 


36  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

the  right  and  left  of  Cemetery  Heights  now  began  to 
rain  grapeshot  and  canister  upon  us,  and  the  en- 
emy's infantry  at  the  base  of  the  Heights,  poured 
volley  after  volley  into  our  ranks.  The  carnage  was 
indeed  terrible;  but  still  the  division,  staggering  and 
bleeding,  pushed  on  towards  the  Heights  they  had 
been  ordered  to  take.  Of  course  such  terrible  slaugh- 
ter could  not  last  long.  The  brave  little  division  did 
not  number  men  enough  to  make  material  for  pro- 
longed slaughter." 

The  carnage  was  for  them  indeed  terrible,  and  their 
subsequent  behaviour  up  to  their  defeat  and  rout  at 
Five  Forks,  showed  that  they  never  forgot  it.  Let 
ns  see  what  was  this  horrible  carnage.  The  fifteen 
regiments,  according  to  General  Longstreet,  carried 
into  the  charge,  of  officers  and  men,  forty-nine  hun- 
dred. It  is  more  probable  that  the  numberwas  fifty- 
h've  hundred.  If  they  had  the  former  number  their 
percentage  of  killed  and  wounded  was  nearly  twen- 
ty-eight, if  the  latter,  not  quite  twenty-five.  On  the 
first  day  the  North  Carolina  brigade  lost  thirty  and 
on  the  third  sixty  per  cent.  The  "brave,  the  mag- 
nificent." when  they  had  experienced  a  loss  of  fifteen 
killed  to  the  regiment,  became  sick  of  fighting,  as  the 
number  surrendered  shows.  One  regiment  of  the 
"cowards,"  the  42d  Mississippi,  only  after  it  had  met 
with  a  loss  of  sixty  killed  and  a  proportionate  num- 
ber of  wounded,  concluded  that  it  was  about  time  to 
rejoin  their  friends.  Another  regiment  of  the  "cow- 
ards," the  26th  North  Carolina,  only  after  it  had  had 
more  men  killed  and  wounded  than  any  one  of  the 
two  thousand  seven  hundred  Federal  and  Confederate 
regiments  ever  had,  came  to  the  same  conclusion. 
The  five  North  Carolina  regiments  of  this  division 
had  five  more  men  killed  than  Pickett's  fifteen. 


Pickett  oe  Pettigrew?  37 

To  continue:  "In  a  few  brief  moments  more  the 
>f  Armistead's  brigade,  led  by  himself  on  foot, 
had  passed  beyond  the  stone  wall,  and  were  among 
the  guns  of  the  enemy,  posted  in  rear  of  it.  General 
Garnet  had  before  then  been  instantly  killed,  and 
General  Kemper  had  been  severely  wounded,  ^he 
survivors  of  their  brigades  had  become  amalga- 
mated with  Armistead's."  How  can  any  one  see  any 
organization  to  boast  of  here?  "Our  line  of  battle 
was  not  parallel  to  the  Heights,  and  the  left  of 
tlif  diminished  line  reached  the  Heights  first. 
The  right  of  the  line  never  reached  them.  The  men 
of  the  right,  however,  were  near  enough  to  see  Gen- 
eral Armistead  shot  down  near  a  captured  gun  as  he 
was  waving  his  sword  above  his  head,  and  they 
could  see  men  surrendering  themselves  as  prisoners. 
Just  then  a  detachment  of  Federal  infantry  came 
out  Hanking  our  right,  and  shouted  to  us  to  surren- 
der. There  was  nothing  else  to  do,  except  to  take 
the  chance,  which  was  an  extremely  good  one,  of  be- 
ing  killed  on  the  retreat  back  over  the  hill.  But  a 
few,  myself  among  the  number,  rightly  concluded 
ilia  t  I  he  enemy  was  weary  of  carnage,  determined  to 
run  the  risk  of  getting  back  to  the  Confederate  lines. 
Our  retreat  was  made  singly,  and  I  at  least  was  not 
fired  upon."  If  the  division  had  equalled  Col.  Wood 
in  gallantry,  it  would  not  have  surrendered  more 
sound  men  than  it  had  lost  in  killed  and  wounded, 
as  by  taking  some  risk  the  most  of  those  captured 
might  have  escaped  as  hedid.  The  Colonel  concludes : 
"When  the  retreat  commenced  on  the  night  of  the 
4th  of  July,  the  nearly  three  hundred  men  who  had 
been  confined  in  the  various  brigade  guard  houses 
were  released  from  confinement,  and  they  and  their 
guard  permitted  to  return  to  duty  in  the  ranks,  and 


38  Pickett  oe  Pettigrew? 

many  detailed  men  were  treated  in  the  same  way. 
On  the  morning  of  the  5th  of  July,  the  report  of  the 
division  showed  not  quite  eleven  hundred  present. 
Eleven  hundred  from  forty-five  hundred  leaves  thirty- 
four  hundred,  a'nd  that  was  the  number  of  casualties 
suffered  by  Pickett's  little  division  at  Gettysburg."  I 
have  known  individuals  who  took  pride  in  poverty  and 
disease.  The  surrender  of  soldiers  in  battle  was  often 
unavoidable;  but  I  have  never  known  a  body  of 
troops  other  than  Pickett's,  who  prided  then) selves 
upon  that  misfortune.  General  Pemberton  or  Mar- 
shal Bazaine  may  have  done  so.  If  they  did,  their 
countrymen  did  not  agree  with  them,  and  it  is  well 
for  the  fame  of  General  Lee  and  his  army  that  the 
belief  that  the  road  to  honor  lay  in  that  direction, 
was  not  very  prevalent.  Pickett's  division  has  been 
compared  to  a  "lance-head  of  steel,"  which  pierced 
the  centre  of  the  Federal  army.  To  be  in  accord 
with  the  comparison,  it  was  always  represented  as 
being  smaller  than  it  really  was. 

Colonel  Wood,  at  the  conclusion  of  his  article,  puts 
its  strength  at  4,500  officers  and  men,  at  the  begin- 
ning at  4,500  "men."  This  last  would  agree  with 
General  Longstreet's  estimate  of  4,900  effectives. 
Knowing  as  1  do  the  average  per  brigade  of  Jack- 
son's Veterans — one-half  of  the  army — and  that  they 
had  been  accustomed  to  fight  two  days  for  every  one 
day  fought  by  Longstreet's  men,  I  think  it  proba- 
ble that  Pickett's  brigade  must  have  averaged 
nearly,  if  not  quite,  two  thousand. 

But  I  will  place  the  strength  of  the  division  at  fifty- 
five  hundred.  I  have  heard  that  fifteen  hundred  were 
surrendered.  Official  records  say  that  thirteen  hun- 
dred and  sixty-four  were  killed  and  wounded. 

According  to  Colonel  Wood,  leaving  out  the  three 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  39 

hundred  guard-house  men,  eight  hundred  appeared  for 
duty  on  the  morning  of  the  5th.  These  three  num- 
bers together  make  thirty-six  hundred  and  sixty- 
four,  which  taken  from  fifty-five  hundred  leaves 
eighteen  hundred  and  thirty-six,  and  this  was  the 
number  of  men  which  the  "brave  little  division"  had 
to  run  away.  They  ran  and  ran  and  kept  running 
'till  the  high  waters  in  the  Potomac  stopped  them. 
As  they  ran  they  shouted  "that  they  were  all  dead 
men,  that  Pettigrew  had  failed  to  support  them,  and 
that  their  noble  division  had  been  swept  away."  The 
outcry  they  made  was  soon  heard  all  over  Virginia, 
and  its  echo  is  still  heard  in  the  North. 

After  our  army  had  recrossed  the  river  and  had 
assembled  at  Bunker  Hill,  the  report  that  Pickett's 
division  of  "dead  men"  had  drawn  more  rations  than 
any  division  ic  the  army,  excited  a  good  deal  of 
good-natured  laughter.  Among  the  officers  of  our 
army,  to  whom  the  casualty  lists  were  familiar,  the 
question  was  often  discussed,  why  it  was  that  some  of 
IVtt  igrew's  brigades,  marching  over  the  same  ground 
at  the  same  time,  should  have  suffered  so  much  more 
than  General  Pickett's?  This  question  was  never 
sal  isfactorily  answered  'till  after  the  war.  The  mys- 
tery was  then  explained  by  the  Federal  General 
Doubleday,  who  made  the  statement  that  "all  the 
artillery  supporting  Webb's  brigade  (which  being  on 
the  right  of  Gibbons'  division,  held  the  projecting 
wall)  excepting  one  piece,  was  destroyed,  and  nearly 
all  of  the  artillerymen  either  killed  or  wounded  by 
the  cannonade  which  preceded  the  assault." 

Of  course  there  were  exceptions,  but  the  general 

rule  was  Mint  those  troops   who  suffered  the  most 

mselves  inflicted  the  greatest  loss  on.  the  enemy 

and   were  consequently   the  most  efficient.    Colonel 


40  Pickett  ok  Pettigrew? 

Fox  says  :  "The  history  of  a  battle  or  war  should  be 
studied  in  connection  with  the  figures  which  show 
the  losses.  By  overlooking  them,  an  indefinite  and 
often  erroneous  idea  is  obtained.  By  overlooking 
them  many  historians  fail  to  develop  the  important 
points  of  the  contest:  they  use  the  same  rhetorical 
descriptions  for  different  attacks,  whether  the  pres- 
sure was  strong  or  weak,  the  loss  great  or  small,  the 
fight  bloody  or  harmless.-'  As  it  was  the  custom  in 
some  commands  to  report  every  scratch  as  a  wound, 
and  in  others  to  report  no  man  as  wounded  who  was 
fit  for  duty,  the  most  accurate  test  for  courage  and 
efficiency  is  the  number  of  killed.  In  the  eight 
brigades  and  three  regiments  from  Virginia  in  this 
battle,  three  hundred  and  seventy-five  were  killed, 
and  nineteen  hundred  and  seventy-one  wounded. 
That  is  for  every  one  killed  five  and  twenty-five  hun- 
dredths were  reported  wounded.  In  the  seven  brig- 
ades and  three  regiments  from  North  Carolina,  six 
hundred  and  ninety-six  were  killed  and  three  thous- 
and and  fifty-four  wounded.  That  is  for  every  man 
killed  only  four  and  forty  hundredths  appeared  on 
the  list  as  wounded. 

If  it  be  a  fact  that  from  Gettysburg  to  the  close  of 
the  war,  among  the  dead  upon  the  various  battle- 
fields comparatively  few  representatives  from  the 
Virginian  infantry  were  to  be  found,  it  is  not  always 
necessarily  to  their  discredit.  For  instance,  even  at 
Gettysburg  two  such  brigades  as  Mahone's  and 
Smyth's  had  respectively  only  seven  and  fourteen 
men  killed.  It  was  not  for  them  to  say  whether  they 
were  to  advance  or  be  held  back.  Their  duty  was  to 
obey  orders.  In  the  same  battle  two  of  Rodes'  North 
Carolina  brigades— Daniels'  and  Iverson's — had  be- 
tween them  two  hundred  and  forty-six  men  buried 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  41 

upon  the  field.  Here  we  see  that  the  eight  regiments 
and  one  battalion,  which  formed  these  two  North 
Carolina  commands,  had  twenty-two  more  men  killed 
than  Pickett's  fifteen.  And  yet  Virginia  history  does 
not  know  that  they  were  even  present  at  this  battle. 

Now,  for  a  brief  recapitulation.  The  left  of  Gar- 
nett's  and  Armistead's  brigades,  all  of  Archer's  and 
Scales'  (but  that  all  means  very  few,  neither  of  them 
at  the  start  being  larger  than  a  full  regiment)  a  few 
of  the  STth  and  the  right  of  Pettigrew's  own  brigade 
took  possession  of  the  works,  which  the  enemy  had 
abandoned  on  their  approach.  Pettigrew's  and 
Trimble's  left  and  Pickett's  right  lay  out  in  the  field 
on  each  Hank  of  the  projecting  work  and  in  front  of 
the  receding  wall,  and  from  forty  to  fifty  yards  from 
it.  There  they  remained  for  a  few  minutes,  'till  a 
fresh  line  of  the  enemy,  which  had  been  lying  beyond 
the  crest  of  the  ridge,  approached.  Then  being- 
attacked  on  both  flanks,  and  knowing  how  disor- 
ganized they  were,  our  men  made  no  fight,  but 
either  retreated  or  surrendered.  Archer's,  Scales'  and 
Pettigrew's  own  brigade  went  as  far  and  sta3Ted  as 
long  or  longer  than  any  of  Pickett's.  Davis'  brigade, 
while  charging  impetuously  ahead  of  the  line  was 
driven  back,  when  it  had  reached  a  point  about  one 
hundred  yards  from  the  enemy.  Lane's,  the  left  brig- 
ade, remained  a  few  moments  longer  than  any  of  the 
other  troops  and  retired  in  better  order. 

Now,  it  must  not  be  inferred  from  anything  in  this 
paper  that  there  has  been  any  intention  to  reflect 
upon  all  Virginia  infantry.  Far  from  it.  The  three 
regiments  in  Steuart's  mixed  brigade  and  Mahone's 
brigade  were  good  troops.  Perhaps  there  were  oth- 
ers equally  good.  But  there  was  one  brigade  which 
was  their  superior,  as  it  was  the  superior  of  most  of 


42 


Pickett  or  Pettigkew? 


the  troops  in  General  Lee's  array.  And  that  was". 
Smith's  brigade  of  Early's  division.  These  troops 
in  npite  of  the  Richmond  newspapers  and  the  partial- 
ity of  certain  of  their  commanders,  had  no  superiors 
in  any  army.  Never  unduly  elated  by  prosperity, 
never  depressed  by  adversity,  they  were  even  to  the 
last,  when  enthusiasm  had  entirely  fled  and  hope  was 
almost  dead,  the  models  of  what  good  soldiers 
should  be. 

"It  is  not  precisely  those  who  know  how  to  kill," 

says    Dragomiroff,    "but    those    who 

death's      know  how  to  die,  who  are  all-powerful 

the  test,    on  a  field  of  battle." 

Regiments  that  had  twenty-nine  or 
more  officers  and  men  killed  on  the  field  in  certain 
battles : 


Regiment. 

Brigade. 

Battle. 

Killed. 

13  Ga. 

Lawton. 

Sharpsburg. 

48. 

3N.  C. 

Ripley. 

it 

46. 

1  Texas. 

Wofford. 

(C 

45. 

13  N.  C. 

Garland. 

u 

41. 

30  Va. 

Walker. 

ii 

39. 

48  N.  C. 

(< 

a 

31. 

27    " 

it 

a 

31. 

50  Ga. 

Drayton. 

a 

29. 

57  N.  C. 

Law. 

Fredericksburg. 

32. 

2    " 

Ramseur. 

Chancellorsville. 

47. 

4    " 

a 

n 

45. 

3    " 

Colston. 

a 

38. 

7    " 

Lane. 

tt 

37. 

1    " 

Colston. 

u 

34. 

37    " 

Lane. 

tt 

34. 

23    " 

Iverson. 

a 

32. 

13    " 

Pender. 

tt 

31. 

22    " 

a 

u 

30. 

51  Ga. 

tSemmes. 

it 

30. 

4    " 

Doles. 

a 

29. 

18  N.  C. 

Lane. 

a 

30. 

Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  43 

Regiment.  Brigade.                 Battle.  Killed. 

26  N.  C.  Pettigrew.         Gettysburg.  86. 

42  Miss.  Davis.  "  60. 

11 N.  C.  Pettigrew.  "  50. 

2  Miss.  Davis.  "  49. 

45  N.  C.  Daniel.  u  46. 

28    "  Iverson.  "  41. 

17  Miss.  Barksdale.  "  40. 

55  N.  C.  Davis.  "  39. 

59  Va  Armistead.  "  35. 

52  N.  C.  Pettigrew.  "  33. 

11  Ga.  Anderson.  "  32. 

5N.  C.  Iverson.  "  31. 

13  S.  C.  Pefrin.  "  31. 

13  N.  C.  Scales.  "  29. 

2  "    Batt.  Daniel.  "  29. 

3  "  Steuart.  "  29. 
20     "  Iverson.  "  29. 

The  proportion  of  wounded  to  killed  was  4.8  to 
one.  That  is,  if  100  are  killed  480  will  be  wounded. 
When  100  men  are  killed,  there  will  be  among  the 
wounded  64  who  will  die  of  wounds.  While  this  may 
not  always  be  the  case  in  a  single  regiment,  yet  when 
a  number  of  regiments  are  taken  together  the  wonder- 
ful law  of  averages  makes  these  proportions  rules 
about  which  there  is  no  varying. 

There  is  an  old  saw  which  says  that  "it  takes  a 
soldier's  weight  in  lead  and  iron  to  kill  him."  Most 
people  believe  that  this  saying  has  to  be  taken  with 
many  grains  of  allowance,  but  it  was  shown  during 
the  war  to  be  literally  true.  In  the  battle  of  Mur- 
freesboro  the  weight  of  the  20,307  projectiles  fired  by 
the  Federal  artillery  was  225,000  pounds,  and  that 
of  the  something  over  2.000,000  musket  balls  exceed- 
ed 150,000  pounds  and  their  combined  weight  ex- 
ceeded that  of  the  2,319  Confederates  who  were  killed 
or  mortally  wounded. 


44  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

In  the  Federal  armies  deaths  from  wounds  amount- 
ed to  110,000  and  from  disease  and  all  other  causes 
about  250,000,  a  total  of  about  360,000.  For 
deaths  in  the  Southern  armies  only  an  approxima- 
tion can  be  arrived  at.  Probably  100,000  died  of 
wounds  and  as  many  more  of  disease,  a  total  of 
about  200,000  which  added  to  the  Federal  loss, 
makes  about  560,000.  This  number  of  soldiers 
drawn  up  in  battle  array  would  make  a  line  112 
miles  long. 
With  singular  inappropriateness  this  brigade  and 

several  other  Federal  organi- 

webb's  Philadelphia  zations   have   erected    monu- 

brigade  ments  to  commemorate  their 

and  other  troops,     gallantry  upon  the  third  da y's 

battlefield.  It  would  appear 
that  they  should  have  been  erected  on  the  spot  where 
their  gallantry  was  displayed.  It  does  not  require 
much  courage  to  lie  behind  breastworks  and  shoot 
dowrn  an  enemy  in  an  open  field  and  then  to  run  away, 
as  it  and  the  other  troops  in  its  vicinity  did,  when  that 
enemy  continued  to  approach.  But,  while  it  does 
not  add  to  their  fame,  it  is  not  to  their  discredit  that 
they  did  give  way.  For  however  much  discipline  and 
inherent  qualities  may  extend  it,  there  is  a  limit  to 
human  endurance,  and  they  had  suffered  severely, 
Webb's  brigade  in  three  days  having  lost  forty-nine 
per  cent.  If  there  ever  have  been  troops  serving  in  a 
long  war  who  never  on  any  occasion  gave  way  till 
they  had  lost  as  heavily,  they  were  the  superiors  of 
any  in  Napoleon's  or  Wellington's  armies.  The  loss 
in  the  British  infantry  at  Salamanca  was  only  twelve 
per  cent.  That  of  the  "Light  Brigade"  at  Balaklava 
was  only  thirty-seven.    That  of  Pickett's  only  twenty- 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  45 

eight,  and  they  were  ruined  forever.  It  is  true  that 
the  North  Carolina  and  Mississippi  brigades  of  Heth's 
division  lost  in  the  first  day's  battle  about  thirty  and 
on  the  third  at  least  sixty  per  cent.,  and  this  without 
having  their  morale  seriously  impaired,  but  then 
both  of  these  organizations  were  composed  of  excep- 
tionally fine  troops. 
This  division  was  composed  of  Archer's  Tennessee 

and    Alabama    regiments,    Pettigrew's 

heth's       North  Carolina,  Davis'  Mississippi  and 

division.      Broekenborough's    Virginia    brigades. 

Counting  from  right  to  left,  Archer 
joining  Pickett's  left,  this  was  the  order  in  which 
they  were  formed  for  the  third  day's  assault.  Soon 
after  the  order  to  advance  was  given  the  left  brigade 
gave  way.  The  others  advanced  and  did  all  that 
flesh  and  blood  eould  do.  Gen.  Hooker,  who  has 
written  the  Confederate  military  history  for  the 
Mississippi  troops,  quotes  from  Dr.  Ward,  a  surgeon 
who  witnessed  the  assault,  who  says  that  the  fire  of 
Cemetery  Mill,  having  been  concentrated  upon  Heth's 
division,  he  saw  no  reason  why  North  Carolina, 
Mississippi,  Tennessee  and  Alabama  troops  should 
not  participate  in  whatever  honors  that  were  won  on 
that  day;  for,  says  he,  all  soldiers  know  that  the 
number  killed  is  the  one  and  only  test  for  pluck  and 
endurance.  Gen.  Hooker  then  states,  "The  brigades 
in  the  army  which  lost  most  heavily  in  killed  and 
wounded  at  Gettysburg,  was  (1)  Pettigrew's  North 
Carolina,  (2)  Davis'  Mississippi  and  North  Carolina, 
(3)  Daniels'  North  Carolina  and  (4)  Barksdale's 
Mississippi."  These  four  had  an  average  of  837  kill- 
ed and  wounded.  Pickett's  three  brigades  had  an 
average  of  455. 


46  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

Some  have  contended  that  the  number  of  deaths 
and  wounds  is  the  test  for  endurance, 
per  centages.  others  that  the  per  centage  is  the 
true  test.  It  may  be  that  neither 
the  one  nor  the  other  alone,  but  that  rather  both  to- 
gether should  be  taken  into  account.  The  same  per 
centage  in  a  large  regiment  should  count  for  more 
than  that  in  a  small  one.  For  while  only  one  Con- 
federate brigade  is  reported  to  have  reached  as  high 
as  63  percent.,  the  regiment,  the  smaller  organiza- 
tions, more  frequently  attained  that  rate.  Thirteen 
are  known  and  several  others  are  supposed  to  have 
reached  it.  And  as  to  the  company,  there  was  hard- 
ly a  hard  fought  battle  in  which  at  leas*"  one  did  not 
have  nearly  every  man  killed  or  wounded.  The 
writer  knows  of  four  in  as  many  North  Carolina  regi- 
ments which  in  one  battle  were  almost  destroyed. 
In  three  of  these  the  per  centage  went  from  eighty- 
seven  to  ninety  eight,  and  the  fourth  had  every  offi- 
cer and  man  struck.  Taking  Colonel  Fox's  tables 
for  authority,  we  find  that  of  the  thirty-four  regi- 
ments standing  highest  on  the  per  centage  list  six 
were  from  North  Carolina,  and  these  six  carried  into 
battle  two  thousand  nine  hundred  and  nine;  only 
two  of  the  thirty-four  were  from  Virginia,  and  their 
"present"  was  fifty-five  for  one  and  one  hundred  and 
twenty-eight  for  the  other.  Tennessee,  leading  the 
list  in  number,  has  seven,  Georgia  and  Alabama  each 
has  six.  The  two  States,  whose  soldiers  Virginia  his- 
torians with  a  show  of  generosity  were  in  the  habit 
of  so  frequently  complimenting,  Texas  and  Louisiana, 
make  rather  a  poor  show — the  former  has  only  one  reg- 
iment on  the  list  and  the  other does  not  appear  at  all. 

The  26th  North  Carolina  had  820  officers  and  men 
at  Gettysburg,  and  their  per  centage  of  killed  and 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  47 

wounded  was  exceeded  by  that  of  only  two  Confeder- 
ate and  three  Federal  regiments  during-  the  whote 
war,  and  those  five  were  all  small,  ranging  from  cme 
hundred  and  sixty-eight  to  two  hundred  and  sixty- 
eight.  As  Senator  Vance's  old  regiment  unquestion- 
ably stands  head  on  the  numerical  list,  so  should  it, 
in  the  opinion  of  the  writer,  stand  on  that  of  per 
centages.  As,  for  reasons  not  necessary  to  mention 
here,  this  list  relates  almost  entirely  to  the  early  bat- 
tles of  the  war,  it  is  not  as  satisfactory  as  it  might 
be.  Though  North  Carolina  should  head  the  list  in 
the  greatest  per  centage  in  any  one  regiment,  it  does 
not  in  the  number  of  regiments.  Early  in  the  war, 
when  it  was  generally  believed  that  peace  would 
come  before  glory  enough  to  go  round  had  been  ob- 
tained, the  North  Carolina  troops  were,  to  a  certain 
extent,  held  back.  For  this  reason,  however  flatter- 
ing to  our  State  pride,  Colonel  Fox's  table  is,  as  it 
stands,  it  would  have  been  vastly  more  so  had  it 
covered  the  whole  war,  especially  the  last  year,  when 
the  fortunes  of  the  Confederacy,  were  held  up  by  the 
bright  bayonets  of  the  soldiers  from  the  old  North 

otatC  "Carolina,  Carolina,  Heaven's  blessings  attend  her  !"  • 

We  see  in  field  returns  for  February  and  March, 

18G5,  that  Pickett's  division  was 

"a  poor  thing,    the  largest  in  the  army.    There 

but  mine  own."    is  nothing  remarkable  about  this 

fact,  for  they  were  not  engaged 

in  the  bloody  repulse  at  Bristoe  Station,  were  not 

,  present  at  the  Wilderness,  were  not  present  at  Spott- 

sylvania,  and  did  not  serve  in  those  horrible  trenches 

at  Petersburg.    In  the  same  report  we  see  that  their 

aggregate,  present  and  absent,  was  9,487.    It  may 

be  that  since  the  world  was  made  there  has  been  a 

body  of  troops  with  9,000  names  on  their  muster 


48  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

rolls,  who,  serving  in  a  long  and  bloody  war,  inflicted 
scu  little  loss  upon  their  enemy  or  suffered  so  little 
tliemselves.  It  may  be,  but  it  is  not  probable.  With 
one  exception  no  division  surrendered  so  few  men  at 
Appomattox. 

Col.  Dodge,  of  Boston,  in  his  history  speaks  of  the 
commander  of  this  division  as  "the  Ney  of  Lee's 
army."  If  satire  is  intended  it  is  uncalled  for  as  the 
Virginian  never  inflicted  any  loss  upon  the  enemy 
worth  mentioning;  certainly  not  enough  to  cause 
any  Yankee  to  owe  him  a  grudge. 

This  brigade  was  composed  of  the  2nd,  11th  and 

42nd  Mississippi  and  55th  North  Caroli- 

d  avis'        na.    The  two  first  were  veteran.    They 

brigade,  had  fought  often  and  always  well.  The 
42nd  Mississippi  and  55th  North  Caro- 
lina were  full  regiments,  Gettysburg  being  their 
first  battle  of  importance.  The  two  first  named 
served  in  Law's  brigade  of  Hood's  division  at  Sharps- 
burg  or  Antietam,  where  they  greatly  distinguished 
themselves,  as  they  had  before  at  First  Manassas 
and  Gain's  Mill.  The  11th  Mississippi  was  the  only 
fresh* regiment  outside  of  Pickett's  division  that  took 
part  in  the  assault  of  July  3rd,  so  all  of  its  loss  oc- 
curred on  that  day,  that  loss  being  202  killed  and 
wounded.  The  number  the3T  carried  in  is  variously 
stated  at  from  300  to  350.  If  the  one,  the  per  cent- 
age  of  their  loss  was  67,  if  the  other,  57. 

This  famous  division,  consisting  of  two  North  Caro- 
lina, one  Georgia  and  one  South  Caro- 

pender's     lina  brigade,  was  first  commanded  by 

division.     Lieutenant  General  A.  P.  Hill  (who  was 
killed  just  at  the  close  of  the  wTar),  after 
his  promotion  by  Pender,  who  was  killed  at  Gettys- 
burg, and  afterwards  by  Wilcox. 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  49 

At  this  time  this  division  consisted  of  three  North 
Carolina,  one  Georgia  and  one  Alabama 
rodes'       brigade.     It  was  first  commanded  by 
division.     Lieutenant-General  D.  H.  Hill,  who  was 
promoted  and  transferred  to  the  West. 
Then  by  Rodes,  who  was  killed  at   Winchester,  then 
by  Grimes,  who  was  assassinated  just  after  the  war. 
Just  after  Gettysburg,  Gen  Lee  told  Gen.  Rodes  that 
his  division  Imd  accomplished   more  in  this  battle 
than  any  other  in  his  army.    The  record  this  body 
made  in  the  campaign  of  18  64  has  never  been  equalled. 
It  had  more  men  killed  and  wounded   than   it  ever 
carried  into  any  one  action.    The  records  show  this. 
This  division  was  composed  for  the  most  part  of 
Virginians.    It  had  only  two  North  Car- 
johnson's    olina  regiments,  the  1st  and  3rd.     Dur- 
ni vision     ing  the  Mine    Run    campaign    General 
Ewell  and  General  Johnson  were  togeth- 
er when  a  Federal  battery  opened  tire  upon  the  divis- 
ion and    became    very   annoying.     What  did  these 
Virginia  Generals  do  about  it?  "Only  this  and  noth- 
ing more."    The  corps  commander  quietly  remarked 
to  the  division  commander:    "Why  don't  you  send 
your  North  Carolina   regiments   after  that   battery 
and  bring  it  in  ?"    At  once  these  regiments  were  select- 
ed from  the  line,  and  were  forming  to  make  a  charge, 
when  the  battery  was  withdrawn. 
The  seven  Confederate  regiments,  which  had  most 

men  killed  in  any  battle 
what  the  troops  from      of  the  war,  were  the  6th 
the  different  status       Alabama,     ninety-one 
considered  bloody  work,    killed ;  26th  North  Caro- 
lina,   eighty-six;    1st 
South  Carolina  Rifles,  eighty-one;  4th  North  Caroli- 
na, seventy-seven ;  44th  Georgia,  seventy-one;  14th 


50  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

Alabama,  seventy-one;  and  20th  North  Carolina, 
seventy.  Pickett's  "veterans"  must  have  thought 
that  to  have  nine  or  ten  men  to  the  regiment  killed, 
was  an  evidence  of  severe  fighting,  for  the  most  of 
them  think  even  to  this  day,  that  to  have  had  near- 
ly fifteen  to  the  regiment  killed  at  Gett3rsburg  was  a 
carnage  so  appalling  as  to  amount  to  butchery. 

This  brigade  consisted  of  the  5th,  12th,  20th  and 
23rd  North  Carolina.    iUwas  first  com- 

iverson's    manded  by  Garland,  who  was  killed  in 

brigade,  the  Maryland  campaign,  then  by  Iver- 
son,  then  by  Bob  Johnson,  then  by 
Toon.  The  20th  was  a  fine  regiment.  At  a  very  crit- 
ical time  at  Gain's  Mill,  it  captured  a  battery.  It  is 
on  Colonel  Fox's  list  as  having  had  on  that  occasion 
seventy  killed  and  two-hundred  and  two  wounded. 
Equally  good  was  the  12th.  That  brilliant  and  la- 
mented young  officer,  General  R.  E.  Rodes,  once  made 
a  little  speech  to  this  regiment  in  which  he  said  that 
alter  Gettysburg  General  Lee  had  told  him  that  his 
division  had  accomplished  more  in  that  battle  than 
any  division  in  his  armj7,  and  that  he  himself  would 
say  that  the  12th  North  Carolina  was  the  best  regi- 
ment in  his  division.  Only  last  week,  while  visiting 
a  neigboring  town,  I  saw  a  bald  headed  old  fellow, 
who  was  Color  Sergeant  of  this  regiment  at  Chancel- 
lorsville.  It  was  charging  a  battery  when  its  its 
commander,  Major  Rowe,  was  killed  and  for  a  mo- 
ment it  faltered.  Just  then  it  was  that  Sergeant 
Whitehead  rushed  to  the  front  with  the  exclamation  : 
"Come  on  12th,  I'm  going  to  ram  this  flag  down  one 
of  them  guns."  The  regiment  answered  with  a  yell, 
took  the  battery  and  held  it. 

In  the  seven  da3Ts'  battle  this  regiment  had  51  men 
killed  on  the  field.    It  suffered  most  at  Malvern  Hill, 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  51 

where  private  Tom  Emry  of  this  county  was  compli- 
mented in  orders  and  promoted  for  gallantry. 

General  Hancock  having  witnessed  a  very  gallant, 
but  unsuccessful  charge  of  the  5th  N.  C.  at  Williams- 
burg, complimented  it  in  the  highest  terms.  Lieu- 
tenant Tom  Snow  of  this  county — a  Chapel  Hill  boy 
— was  killed  on  this  occasion  and  his  body  was  deliv- 
ered to  his  friends  by  the  Federals. 

With  such  Colonels  as  Chirstie,  Blacknall  and  Davis, 
— the  first  two  dying  of  wounds — the  23rd  could  not 
fail  in  always  being  an  "A  No.  1."  regiment.  This 
brigade  at  Gettysbury  had  one  hundred  and  eleven 
killed,  and  three  hundred  and  forty -four  wounded 

In  the  fall  of  1864  near  Winchester,  General  Brad- 
ley Johnston  of  Maryland  was  a  witness  of  the  con- 
duct of  this  brigade  under  very  trying  circumstances, 
and  he  has  recently  written  a  very  entertaining  ac- 
count of  what  he  saw,  and  in  it  he  is  very  enthusias- 
tic in  his  praise  of  their  courage  and  discipline,  com- 
paring them  to  Sir  Colin  Campbell's  ''Thin  Red  Line" 
at  Balaklava. 

This  brigade  consisted  of  the  32nd,  43rd,  45th,  53rd 
and  2nd  battalion, all  from  North  Caro- 

daniels'     Una.     It  was  first  commanded  by  Dan- 

brigade.  iels,  who  was  killed  at  Spottsylvania. 
Then  by  Grimes  and  after  his  promo- 
tion by  Colonels,  several  of  whom  were  killed.  To 
say  that  this  brigade  accomplished  more  in  the  first 
day's  battle  than  an3T  other,  is  no  reflection  upon  the 
other  gallant  brigades  of  Rode's  division.  General 
Doubleday,  who,  after  the  fall  of  General  Reynolds, 
succeeded  to  the  command  of  the  First  Corps,  sa37s 
that  Stone's  Pennsylvania  brigade  held  the  key- 
point  of  this  day's  battle.  These  Pennsylvanians, 
occupying  a  commanding  position,  were  supported 


52  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

by  other  regiments  of  infantry  and  two  batteries  of 
artillery.  Daniels'  right,  Brabble's  32nd  North  Car- 
olina leading,  had  the  opportunity  given  it  to  carry 
this  "key-point"  by  assault,  and  gloriously  did  it 
take  advantage  of  that  opportunity.  No  troops  ever 
fought  better  than  did  this  entire  brigade,  and  its- 
killed  and  wounded  was  greater  by  far  than  any 
brigade  in  its  corps.  The  45th  and  2nd  battalion 
met  with  the  greatest  loss,  the  former  having  219 
killed  and  wounded,  the  latter  153  out  of  240,  which 
was  nearly  64  per  cent.  When,  on  the  morning  of 
the  12th  of  May  at  Spottsylvania,  Hancock's  corps 
ran  over  Johnson's  division,  capturing  or  scattering 
the  whole  command,  this  fine  brigade  and  Ramseur's 
North  Carolina,  and  Bob  Johnston's  North  Carolina, 
by  their  promptness  and  intrepidity,  checked  the  en- 
tire Second  corps  and  alone  held  it  'till  Lane's  North 
Carolina,  Harris'  Mississippi  and  other  troops  could 
be  brought  up. 

This  famous  brigade  consisted  of  the  2nd,  4th,  14th 

and  30th  North  Carolina.    It  was  first 

ramseur's    commanded  by  General  Geo.  B.  Ander- 

brigade.  son,  wTho  was  killed  at  Sharpsburg. 
Then  by  Ramseur,  who  was  promoted 
and  killed  at  Cedar  Creek.  Then  by  Cox.  The  fond- 
ness of  this  brigade  for  prayer  meeting  and  Psalm 
singing  united  with  an  ever  readiness  to  fight,  re- 
minds one  of  Cromwell's  Ironsides.  It  fought  well 
at  Seven  Pines  when  one  of  its  regiments,  having  car- 
ried in  six  hundered  and  seventy-eight  officers  and 
men,  lost  fifty-four  per  cent,  in  killed  and  wounded. 
At  Malvern  Hill  it  met  with  great  loss.  It  occupied 
the  bloody  lane  at  Sharpsburg.  At  Chancellorsville 
out  of  fifteen  hundred  and  nine,  it  had  one  hundred 
and  fifty -four  killed  and  five  hundred  and  twenty-six 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  53 

wounded,  or  forty-five  per  cent,  On  the  12th  of  May 
at  Spottsylvania  it  acted  probably  the  most  dis- 
tinguished part  of  any  brigade  in  the  army.  It  did 
the  last  fighting  at  Appomattox,  and  about  twenty- 
rive  men  of  the  14th,  under  Captain  W.  T.  Jenkins, 
of  Halifax  county,  fired  the  last  shots.  To  see  these 
poor  devils,  many  of  them  almost  barefooted  and  all 
of  them  half  starved,  approach  a  field  where  a  battle 
was  raging  was  a  pleasant  sight.  The  crack  of  Na- 
poleons, the  roar  of  Howitzers  and  crash  of  musket- 
ry always  excited  and  exhilerated  them,  and  as  they 
swung  into  action  they  seemed  supremely  happy. 
Lane's  brigade  consisted  of  the  7th.   18th,   28th, 

33rd  and  37th  North  Carolina.    It  was 

lane's       first  commanded  by  General  L.   0.  B. 

brigade.     Branch,  who  was  killed  at  Sharpsburg. 

The  7th  and  18th  appear  upon  Colonel 
Fox's  per  centage  table,  both  having  in  the  seven 
days'  fight  lost  56  per  cent.  The  numerical  loss  for 
the  brigade  was  807.  At  Chancellorsville  it  had  739 
killed  and  wounded.  In  the  history  of  this  battle  by 
Col.  Hamlin,  of  Maine,  the  conduct  of  this  brigade  is 
spoken  of  very  highly.  In  Longstreet's  assault  as  it 
moved  over  the  field  the  two  wings  of  its  right  regi- 
ment parted  company,  and  at  the  close  of  the  as- 
sault  were  several  hundred  yards  apart.  The  point 
of  direction  for  the  assaulting  column  was  a  small 
cluster  of  trees  opposite  to  and  in  front  of  Archer's 
brigade,  and  while  the  rest  of  the  line  dressed  on  this 
brigade,  by  some  misunderstanding,  four  and  a  half 
regiments  of  Lane's  dressed  to  the  left.  It  went  some 
distance  beyond  the  Emmittsburg  road,  but  fell  back 
bo  that  road,  where  it  remained  fighting  'till  all  the 
rest  of  the  line  had  given  way,  when  it  was  with- 
drawn by  General  Trimble. 


54  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

Some  time  ago  a  Union  veteran  in  a  St.  Louis 
paper  gave  an  account  of  what  came  under  his  ob- 
servation at Spottsylvania.  His  command  had  been 
repulsed  and  was  being  driven  by  Lane's  brigade, 
when  he  was  shot  down.  As  the  victorious  line  swept 
by  a  Confederate  was  struck,  falling  near  him.  The 
conduct  of  a  young  officer,  whose  face  was  radiant 
with  the  joy  of  battle,  had  attracted  his  attention, 
and  he  asked  his  wounded  neighbor  who  he  was.  His 
reply  was,  "That's  Capt.  Billy  McLaurin,  of  the  18th 
North  Carolina,  the  bravest  man  in  Lee's  army." 

This  superb  brigade  consisted  of  three  regiments 
from  Tennessee,  one  regiment  and  one 

archer's     battalion  from  Alabama.    It    suffered 

brigade,  very  severely  the  first  day  ;  on  the  third 
it  was  gallantly  led  hx  Colonel  Frye, 
who  says,  referring  to  the  close  of  the  assault:  "I 
heard  Garnett  give  a  command.  Seeing  my  gesture 
of  inquiry  he  called  out,  T  am  dressing  on  you.'  A 
few  seconds  later  he  fell  dead.  A  moment  later  a  shot 
through  my  thigh  prostrated  me.  The  smoke  soon 
became  so  dense  that  I  could  see  but  little  of  what 
was  going  on  before  me.  A  moment  later  I  heard 
General  Pettigrew  calling  to  rally  them  on  the  left 
(referring  to  a  brigade  which  had  just  given  way). 
All  of  the  five  regimental  colors  of  my  command 
reached  the  line  of  the  enemy's  works,  and  many  of 
my  officers  and  men  were  killed  after  passing  over  it." 
Colonel  Shepherd,  who  succeeded  Colonel  Frye  in 
command,  said  in  his  official  report  that  every  flag 
in  Archer's  brigade,  except  one,  was  captured  at  or 
within  the  works  of  the  enemy.  This  brigade  and 
Pettigrew's  were  awarded  the  honor  of  serving  as  a 
rear  guard  when  the  army  re-crossed  the  river. 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  55 

Two  of  General  Early's  brigades  made  a  very  bril- 
liant charge  on  the  second  day:  but 
hoke's       being  unsupported  were  forced  to  fall 

brigade,  back.  They  were  Hoke's  North  Caroli- 
na, commanded  by  Colonel  Avery,  who 
was  killed,  and  Hayes'  Louisiana.  They  did  equally 
well  in  every  respect,  yet  one  is  always  praised,  the 
other  rarely  mentioned.  Hoke's  brigade  consisted 
of  the  6th,  21st,  54th  and  57th.  First  commanded 
by  Moke,  after  his  promotion  by  Godwin,  who  was 
killed  in  the  Valley,  and  then  by  Gaston  Lewis. 

The  54th  was  on  detached  duty  and  did  not  take 
part  in  this  battle.  Mr.  Vandersliee,  in  his  fine  de- 
scription of  this  affair,  does  full  justice  to  our  North 
Carolina  boys,  and  closes  1>3T  sa3*ing:  "It  will  be 
noted  that  while  this  assault  is  called  that  of  the 
'Louisiana  Tigers,'  the  three  North  Carolina  regi- 
ments lost  more  men  than  the  five  Louisiana  regi- 
ments." 

From  a  book  recently  published,  entitled,  "Pickett 

and  His  Men,"  the  following 
pay  your  money  and    paragraph  is  taken :     "Petti- 

take  your  choice.      grew  was  trying  to  reach  the 

post  of  death  and  honor,  but 
he  was  far  away  and  valor  could  not  annihilate  space. 
His  troops  had  suffered  cruelly  in  the  battle  the  day 
before  and  their  commander  had  been  wounded. 
They  were  now  led  by  an  officer  ardent  and  brave, 
but  to  them  unknown." 

Col.  Carswell  McClellan,  who  was  an  officer  of  Gen. 
Humphreys'  staff,  comparing  the  assault  made  by 
this  General  at  Fredericksburg  with  that  which  is 
known  as  Pickett's,  says:  "As  the  bugle  sounded 
the  'charge,'  Gen.  Humphreys  turned  to  his  staff, 
and  bowing  with  uncovered  head,  remarked  as  quiet- 


50  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

ly  and  as  pleasantly  as  if  inviting-  them  to  be  seated 
around  his  table,  'Gentlemen,  I  shall  lead  this  charge. 
I  presume,  of  course,  you  will  wish  to  ride  with  me.'  ' 
Now,  compare  that  to  Pickett,  who  was  not  within  a 
mile  of  his  column  when  they  charged  at  Gettysburg 
— Pettigrew  and  Armistead  led  Pickett's  division 
there.  Of  this  grand  assault  of  Humphreys  I  can  do 
no  better  than  quote  Gen.  Hooker's  report:  "This 
attack  was  made  with  a  spirit  and  determination 
seldom,  if  ever,  equalled  in  war.  Seven  of  Gen.  Hum- 
phreys' staff  officers  started  with  the  charge,  five 
were  dismounted  before  reaching  the  line  where  Gen. 
Couch's  troops  were  lying,  and  four  were  wounded 
before  the  assault  ceased." 

But  as  he  spoke   Pickett,   at  the  head  of  his  di- 
vision, rode  over  the  crest  of  Seminary 
the  school     Ridge  and  began  his  descent  down  the 
girl's  hero,    slope.      "As    he    passed    me,"    writes 
Longstreet,  "he  rode  gracefully,  with 
his  jaunty  cap  racked  well  over  his  right  ear  and  his 
long  auburn  locks,  nicely  dressed,  hanging  almost 
to  his  shoulders.      He  seemed  a  holiday    soldier." 
Echo  repeats  the  words :    A  holiday  soldier !    A  holi- 
day soldier! 

Even  Gen.  Lee  was  unfair  to  our  troops,  and  Gen. 
Long,  his  biographer,  in  more  than  one 
there  now  !    place  misapprehended  the  facts.    In  re- 
ply to  a  letter   from    this    writer   lie 
promised  to  make  a  correction  if  a  second  edition  of 
his  large  and  interesting  biography  was  called  for. 

We  refer  to  the  third  day  at  Gettysburg  so  soon 
again  because  of  a  letter  that  reached  us  on  Monday 
postmarked  "Charleston,  S.  C,  April  9."  It  comes 
from  a  soldier  who  did  not  belong  to  either  Petti- 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  57 

grew's  or  Pickett's  command.    He  writes,  and  he  is 
clearly  a  man  of  education  and  fairness : 

'"1  am  glad  to  see  you  are  taking  up  the  claim  of 
Pettigrew's  brigade  to  share  in  the  glory  of  Gettys- 
1  > u  i  g.  W3 ly  not  go  a  little  further?  Pettigrew  led  his 
division.  Pickett  did  not.  Pettigrew  was  wounded, 
and  no  member  of  his  staff  came  out  of  the  fight  with- 
out being  wounded  or  having  his  horse  shot  under 
him.  Neither  Pickett  nor  any  member  of  his  staff 
nor  even  one  of  the  horses  was  touched.  Why?  Be- 
cause dismounted  and  on  the  farther  side  of  a  hill 
that  protected  them  from  the  enemy's  fire."  There 
is  in  this  city  a  letter  from  a  distinguished,  able, 
scholarly  Virginian  that  states  that  General  Pickett 
was  not  in  the  charge  at  all.  There  now!  The  cor- 
respondent adds:  ''Investigate  the  statement,  and 
if  correct,  this  will  help  to  make  history  somewhat 
truthful."  He  gives  excellent  authority — a  gallant 
citizen  of  Savannah,  Ga.,  who  was  in  the  battle  and 
of  whom  we  have  known  Tor  more  than  thirty-three 
years.  Let  the  whole  truth  come  out  as  to  the  splen- 
did charge  on  the  third  day,  who  participated  in  and 
who  went  farthest  in  and  close  to  the  enemy. — Wil- 
mington Messenger. 

The  following  extract  is  taken  from  a  magazine  ar- 
ticle   written    by    Mr.    J.    F. 
gov.  kemper  killed     Rhodes  in  1899  : 

in  battle  "Then  the  union    guns    re- 

Axi)  other  matters,    opened.      When  near  enough 

canister  shot  was  added,  'the 
slaughter  was  terrible.'  The  Confederate  artillery 
re-opened  over  the  heads  of  the  charging  column  try- 
ing to  divert  the  fire  of  the  union  cannon,  but  it  did 
not  change  the  aim  of  the  batteries  from  the  charg- 
ing column.     When  near  enough  the  Federal  infantry 


58  Pickett  or  Pettigbew? 

opened,  but  on  swept  the  devoted  division.  Near  the 
Federal  lines  Pickett  made  a  pause  'to  close  ranks 
and  mass  for  a  final  plunge.'  Armistead  leaped  the 
stone  wall  and  cried,  'Give  them  the  cold  steel,  boys/ 
laid  his  hand  on  a  Federal  gun,  and  the  next  moment 
was  killed.  At  the  same  time  Garnett  and  Kemper, 
Pickett's  other  brigadiers,  were  killed.  Hill's  corps 
wavered,  broke  ranks  and  fell  back.  'The  Federals 
swarmed  around  Pickett,' writes  Longstreet, 'attack- 
ing on  all  sides,  enveloped  and  broke  up  his  com- 
mand. The j  drove  the  fragments  back  upon  our 
lines.    Pickett  gave  the  word  to  retreat.'  " 

To  give  a  clear  idea  of  the  closing  events  of  this  as- 
sault it  will  be  well  to  mention  several  things  not 
generally  known.  Just  at  the  point  which  had  been 
occupied,  but  was  then  abandoned  by  Webb's  brig- 
ade, there  was  no  stonewall,  but  a  breastwork  made 
of  rails  covered  with  a  little  earth.  Those  works 
jutted  out  into  the  field.  On  both  sides  of  this  salient 
there  were  stone  walls.  Of  the  one  thousand  men 
who  reached  these  works  of  rails  and  earth  only  about 
fifty  followed  Armistead  to  the  abandoned  guns. 
The  others  stopped  there.  Seeing  this  all  to  their 
right,  more  than  half  the  column  did  the  same,  and 
having  stopped  they  were  obliged  to  lie  down.  The 
left  of  the  line  continued  to  move  on  for  a  while  when 
they,  to  prevent  annihilation,  also  fell  to  the  ground. 
This  discontinuance  of  the  forward  movement,  show- 
ing that  the  momentum  of  the  charge  had  spent  it- 
self, meant  defeat.  Our  men  knew  this,  but  there 
they  lay  waiting  for — they  knew  not  what.  All  other 
things  that  happened — the  capture  of  men,  muskets 
and  flags — were  for  the  Federals  mere  details  in  reap- 
ing the  harvest  of  victory. 


Pickett  ok  Pettigrew?  59 

Leaving  out  Lane's  brigade,  which  lay  far  over  to 

the  left  in  the  Emmittsburg 

safe  surrenderor      road,  our  line,  which  was  so 

dangerous  ketreat?    imposing  at  the  beginning  of 

the  assault,  covered  the  front 
of  only  two  Federal  brigades  at  its  close.  Into  the 
interval  between  Lane's  and  Pettigrew's  troops  Xew 
Yorkers  were  sent,  who  attacked  the  left  of  the  lat- 
ter's  own  brigade.  About  the  same  time  Vermonters 
moved  up  and  fired  several  volleys  into  Pickett's 
right.  Which  body  of  these  flankers  first  made  their 
attack  lias  been  a  subject  of  some  dispute,  but  it  is  a 
matter  of  no  importance.  Neither  attack  was  made 
before  Armistead  was  wounded.  But  there  is  a  mat- 
ter of  very  great  importance,  and  that  is  to  correctly 
decide  which  of  the  two  contrary  lines  of  action  taken 
that  day  is  the  more  honorable  and  soldier-like. 
Here  were  troops  lying  out  in  the  open  field,  all  of 
them  knowing  that  they  had  met  with  a  frightful 
defeat.  Those  on  the  left,  seeing  a  move  on  the  part 
of  the  enemy  to  effect  their  capture,  though  tit  a  duty 
they  owed  themselves,  their  army  and  their  country 
to  risk  their  iives  in  an  effort  to  escape.  Actingupon 
this  thought  they  went  to  the  rear  with  a  rush,helter 
skelter,  devil  take  the  hindmost,  and  the  most  of 
them  did  escape.  Those  on  the  right  when  ordered 
to  surrender  did  so  almost  to  a  man.  The  North. 
Carolinians,  Alabamians  and  Tennesseeans  upon  the 
field  felt  that  to  surrender  when  there  was  a  reasona- 
ble hope  of  escape  was  very  little  better  than  cleser- 
1  [(  m.  If  the  opinions  of  the  Virginians  were  not  quite 
;is  extreme  as  this,  they  certainly  would  have  been 
surprised  at  that  time  had  they  been  told  that  their 
conduct  was  heroic.  Since  then  maudlin  sentiment- 
alists have  so  often  informed  them  it  was  that  now 


GO  Pickett  or  Pettigrbw? 

they  believe  it.    The  time  may  come  when  history 
will  call  their  surrender  by  its  rig-lit  name. 
The  late  Gen.  James  Dearing,  of  Virginia,  at  the 
time  of  the  battle  an  artillery  major, 
stragglers,    witnessed  the  assault,  and  shortly  af- 
terwards, giving  a  description  of  it  to  a 
friend  of  the  writer,  mentioned  a  circumstance  which 
partly  accounts  for  the  fact  that  all  of  Pickett's 
troops  were  not  captured.    It  was  that  from  the  very 
start  individuals  began  to  drop  out  of  ranks,  and 
that  the  number  of  these  stragglers  continued  to  in- 
crease as  the  line  advanced,  and  that  before  a  shot 
had  ever  been  tired  at  them  it  amounted  to   many 
hundreds.    This  conduct  on  the  part  of  so  many  must 
be  taken  into  consideration  in  accounting  for  the 
shortness  of  our  line  at  the  close  of  the  assault ;  also 
that  the  troops  both  to  the  right  and  left  dressing 
upon  Archer's  brigade  there  was  in  consequence  much 
crowding  towards  the  centre.    By  adding  to  these 
causes  the  deaths  and  wounds  the  explanation  of  a 
condition  which  has  puzzled  many  writers  is  readily 
seen. 
General  Longstreet  is  supposed  to  have  always 
thought  that  after  the  second  of 
"the  post  of         Pettigrew's  brigades  gave  way 
death  and  honor."    there  we^e  none  of  HuTs  troops 

left  upon  the  field.  This  Gener- 
al, while  honest,  was  so  largely  imaginative  that  his 
statement  of  facts  is  rarely  worthy  of  credence.  He 
says  that  "Pickett  gave  the  word  to  retreat."  There 
are  very  many  old  soldiers,  many  even  in  Richmond, 
who  do  not  believe  that  Pickett  was  there  to  give 
that  word.  That  in  the  beautiful  language  of  a  re- 
cent writer,  "He  may  have  been  trying  to  reach  the 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  Gl 

post  of  death  and  honor,  but  he  was  far  away,  and 
valor  could  not  annihilate  space." 

Gen.  Long-street  is  reported  recently  to  have  said 
at  Gettysburg  that  if  Gen.  Meade 
JUDGING  others  had  advanced  his  whole  line  on 
BY  ourselves.  July  4th  he  would  have  carried 
everything  before  him.  It  is  hardly 
fair  for  Gen.  Long-street  to  do  so,  but  he  is  evidently 
judging  the  army  by  his  troops,  some  of  whom  are 
said  to  have  been  so  nervous  and  shaky  after  this 
battle  that  the  crack  of  a  teamster's  whip  would 
startle  them.  He  is  mistaken,  for  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  rhe  enemy  was  about  as  badly  battered 
as  we  were,  and  that  the  troops  composing  EwelFs 
and  Hill's  corps  had  beaten  this  enemy  only  two 
months  before  when  it  was  on  the  defensive.  Now  we 
would  have  been  on  the  defensive;  is  it  probable  that 
Ave  would  have  been  beaten? 

This  brigade  was  composed  of  the  11th,  26th,  47th, 

52nd  and  44th  North  Carolina.    When 

pettigrew's    the  army  went  on  the  Gettysburg  cam- 

brigade.  paign  the  last  named  regiment  was  left 
in  Virginia.  That  this  brigade  had 
more  men  killed  and  wounded  at  Gettysburg  than 
any  brigade  in  our  army  ever  had  in  any  battle  is 
not  so  much  to  its  credit  as  is  the  fact  that  after  such 
appalling  losses  it  was  one  of  the  two  brigades  se- 
lected for  the  rear  guard  when  the  army  re-crossed 
the  river.  At  Gettysburg  Capt.  Tuttle's  company  of 
tie-  26th  regiment  went  into  the  battle  with  three 
officers  and  eighty-four  men.  All  the  officers  and 
eighty-three  of  the  men  were  killed  or  wounded.  In 
Gin  same  battle  company  C.  of  the  11th  regiment, 
had  two  officers  killed  (First  Lieut.  Tom  Cooper,  a 
University  boy,  was  one  of  them)  and  thirty -four  out 


G2  Pickett  or  Pettigeew? 

of  the  thirty-eight  men  killed  or  wounded.  Capt. 
Bird  with  the  four  remaining  men  participated  in  the 
assault  of  the  third  day,  and  of  them  the  flag-  hearer 
was  shot  and  the  captain  brought  out  the  colors 
himself.  He  was  made  major,  and  was  afterwards 
killed  at  Reams  Station.  Bertie  county  should  raise 
a  monument  to  his  memory.  In  the  assault  Col. 
Marshall,  of  the  52nd,  commanded  this  brigade  'till 
he  was  killed.  At  the  close  of  the  battle  Maj.  Jones, 
of  the  2(3th,  was  the  only  field  officer  who  had  not 
been  struck,  and  he  was  subsequently  killed  at-  the 
Wilderness. 
With  the  exception  of  South  Carolina  probably  no 

State  in  the  Confederacy  had  so  few 
desertion,     soldiers    "absent    without    leave' '    as 

North  Carolina.  Owing  to  unfortunate 
surroundings  neither  the  head  of  the  army  nor  the 
administration  ever  realized  this  fact.  The  same 
harshness  that  forced  thousands  of  conscripts  into 
the  army  who  were  unfit  for  service,  and  kept  them 
thereuntil  death  in  the  hospital  released  them,  caused 
more  soldiers  from  North  Carolina  (some  of  whom 
had  shed  their  blood  in  defence  of  the  South)  to  be 
shot  for  this  so-called  desertion  than  from  any  other 
State.  Though  the  military  population  of  the  Tar 
Heel  State  was  not  as  great  as  that  of  at  least  two  of 
the  others,  her  soldiers  filled  twice  as  manj^  graves, 
and  at  Appomattox,  Va., and  Greensboro,  N.C.,  surren- 
dered twice  as  many  muskets  as  those  of  any  other 
State.  There  was  a  singular  met  in  connection  with 
these  so-called  desertions.  In  summer,  when  there 
was  fighting  or  the  expectation  of  a  fight,  they  never 
occurred.  Only  in  winter,  when  the  men  had  time  to 
think  of  their  families,  hundreds  of  whom  were  suffer- 
ing for  the  necessaries  of  life,  did  the  longing  desire 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  63 

to  see  them  and  minister  to  their  wants  overcome 
.'very  other  sentiment,  and  dozens  of  them  would 
steal  away. 

Wonder  and  surprise  must  be  felt  by  any  intelligent 
officer  of  any  of  the  European  armies 
undeserved  who  rides  over  that  part  of  the  lines 
contempt,  held  by  the  army  of  the  Potomac 
which  was  assaulted  on  the  afternoon 
of  July  3rd,  1863.  Wonder  that  sixty  or  seventy 
thousand  men  occupying  the  commanding  position 
•  did  and  supported  by  hundreds  of  cannonshould 
have  felt  so  much  pride  in  having  defeated  a  column 
of  less  than  ten  thousand.  For  had  their  only  weap- 
ons been  brick-bats  they  should  have  done  so.  Sur- 
prise that  Gen.  Lee  should  have  had  so  supreme  a 
contempt  for  the  Federal  army  as  to  have  thought 
for  a  moment  that  by  any  sort  of  possibility  the  at- 
tack could  be  successful. 

No  longer  ago  than  last  August  a  New  York  maga- 
zine contained  an  elaborately 
a  leaf  of  illustrated  article  descriptive  of 

northern  historv.    the  Gettysburg  battlefield.    As 

long  as  the  writer  confines  him- 
self to  natural  scenery  he  acquits  himself  very  credit- 
ably, but  when  he  attempts  to  describe  events  which 
occurred  there  so  many  years  ago  he  flounders  fear- 
fully. Of  course  Pickett's  men  advance ''alone."  Of 
course  there  is  a  terriffc  hand-to-hand  battle  at  what 
he  calls  the  "bloody  angle."  In  this  battle  he  says 
thai  many  of  Doubleday's  troops  lost  from  twenty- 
five  to  forty  per  cent.  "The  slaughter  of  the  Confed- 
erates was  fearful — nearly  one  half  of  them  were  left 
upon  the  field,  Garnett's  brigade  alone  having  over 
three  thousand  killed  and  captured."  This  is  North- 
ern historv. 


64  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

Now  for  facts:  Pickett's  men  did  not  advance 
''alone.''  There  was  no  terrific  battle  inside  the  ene- 
my's works.  None  of  Donbleda.y's  troops  lost  there 
from  twenty-five  to  forty  per  cent.  There  was  not 
one  regiment  in  Gibbons'  or  Doubleday\s  commands 
which,  after  the  shelling',  lost  one-fourth  of  one  per 
cent.  As  to  Garnett's  brigade,  as  it  carried  in  only 
two  thousand  or  less  and  brought  out  a  considerable 
fragment,  it  could  hardly  have  had  over  three  thous- 
and killed  and  captured.  It  did  have  seventy -eight 
killed  and  three  hundred  and  twenty-four  wounded. 

Gen.  Doubleday  in  writing  to  ask  permission  to 
make  use  of  the  pamphlet  in  a  history  he  was  then 
preparing,  suggested  only  one  alteration,  and  that 
wras  in  regard  to  Stannard's  Vermont  brigade,  which 
had  fought  only  the  day  before,  and  not  the  two 
days  as  the  pamphlet  had  it. 

On  the  retreat  Kilpatrick  attacked  our  ambulance 

trj  lin    and    c  a  p  t  u  r  e  d    m  a  n  y 

union  sentiment  in    wounded     officers     of    Ewell's 

north  Carolina.       corps.    Among  them  was  one 

from  my  brigade  who,  when  in 
hospital,  was  asked  by  a  Federal  surgeon  if  the  well- 
known  Union  sentiment  in  North  Carolina  had  any- 
thing to  do  with  the  large  proportion  of  wounded 
men  from  that  State.  Being  young  and  inex- 
perienced in  the  ways  of  the  world  he  indignantly 
answered,  "No." 

Early  in  the  war  the  best  troops  in  the  army  of 
Northern  Virginia  could  not  have 
humbuggery  of  fighting  enough.  At  that  time 
history.  they  were  simple  enough  to  believe 

that  there  was  some  connection  be- 
tween fame  and  bravery.  After  a  while  they  learned 
that  a  dapper  little  clerk  of  the  quartermaster's  de- 


Pickett  ok  Pettigrew?  65 

partment,  if  he  had  the  ear  of  the  editor  of  the  Rich- 
mond  "Examiner,"  had  more  to  do  with  their  repu- 
tation than  their  own  courage.  When  this  fact  be- 
came  known  there  was  "no  more  spoiling  for  a  fight," 
but  it  was  xery  often  felt  to  be  a  hardship  when  they 
were  called  upon  to  do  more  than  their  proper  share 
of  fihting. 

The  40th,  47th  and  55th  Virginia  regiments  and 

22nd   Virginia    battalion    com- 

brockenborough's    posed  this  brigade.    Up  to  the 

Virginia  brigade,     reorganization  of  the  army  after 

Jackson's  death,  it  formed  a 
part  of  A.  P.  Hill's  famous  light  division.  That  it 
did  not  sustain  its  reputation  at  Gettysburg  had  no 
effect  upon  the  general  result  of  that  battle.  Their 
loss  was  25  killed  and  143  wounded. 

If  any  searcher  after  the  truth  of  the  matter  con- 
sults the  records  and  other  sources  of 
longstreet's    reliable  information,  paying  no  at- 
men.  tention  to  the  clap-traps  of  Virginia 

writers,  he  will  find,  to  say  the  least, 
that  the  troops  of  Swell's  and  Hill's  corps  were  the 
peers  of  the  best  and  the  superiors  of  a  large  part  of 
the  soldiers  of  Longstreet's  corps.  In  the  battle  of 
the  second  day  if  the  four  brigades  of  McLaw's  divi- 
sion had  fought  as  well  as  did  Wright's  and  Wilcox's 
of  the  third  corps,  we  would  have  undoubtedly  gain- 
ed a  victory  at  Gettysburg.  Hood's  was  the  best  di- 
vision, but  it  was  defeated  at  Wauhatchie,  Tenn.,  by 
troops  that  the  men  of  the  second  and  third  corps 
had  often  met  and  never  failed  to  drive.  As  to  Pick- 
ett's "writing  division:"  From  Malvern  Hill  to  Get- 
tysburg was  exactly  one  year,  and  in  this  time  the 
four  great  battles  of  Second  Manassas,  Sharpsburg, 
Fredericksburg  and   Chancellorsville,  and  twice   as 


G6  Pickett  or  Pettigkew? 

many  of  less  prominence  were  fought  by  the  army  or 
parts  of  the  army.  In  these  battles  Lane's  North 
Carolina,  Scales'  North  Carolina  and  Archer's  mixed 
brigade  of  Tennesseeans  and  Alabamians  had  three 
thousand  six  hundred  and  ten  men  killed  andwOund- 
ed.  En  the  same  period  Armistead's  Virginia,  Kem- 
per's Virginia  and  Garnett's  Virginia  had  seven  hun- 
dred and  seventy-two  killed  and  wounded. 
At  Gettysburg  where  it  had  102  killed  and  322 
wounded  it  was  a  small  brigade,  as  at 
scales'  Chancellorsville  only  two  months  before  it 
brigade,  had  met  with  a  loss  of  nearly  seven  hun- 
dred. In  the  third;  day's  assault,  General 
Scales  having  been  wounded,  it  was  commanded  by 
Col.  Lowrence,  who  was  also  wounded  as  was  every 
field  officer  and  nearly  o\i>\-y  company  officer  in  the 
brigade.  This  gallant  Little  organization  consisted 
of  the  13th,  16th,  22nd,  34th  and  38th  North  Caro- 
lina. Its  first  commander  was  Pettigrew,  who  was 
severely  wounded  and  captured  at  Seven  Pines.  Then 
came  Pender,  then  Scales,  late  Governor  of  North 
Carolina.  At  Gettysburg  it  and  Lane's  were  the 
only  troops  who  were  required  to  fight  every  day. 
Mr.  W.  H.  Swallow,  of  Maryland,  a  Confederate 
soldier  and  a  writer  of  some  note,  was  wounded  at 
Gettysburg-,  and  in  one  of  la's  articles  descriptive  of 
the  battle,  says:  "Gen.  Trimble,  who  commanded 
Pender's  division  and  lost  a  leg  in  the  assault,  lay 
wounded  with  the  writer  at  Gettysburg  for  several 
weeks  after  the  battle,  related  the  fact  to  the  writer 
(Swallow)  that  when  (Jen.  Lee  was  inspecting  the 
column  in  front  of  Scales'  brigade,  which  had  been 
fearfully  cut  up  in  the  first  clay's  conflict,  having  lost 
very  heavily,  including  all  of  its  regimental  officers 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  67 

with  its  gallant  commander,  and  noticing  mi  oy  of 
Scales'  men  with  their  heads  and  hands  bandaged, 
he  said  to  Gren.  Trimble:  'Many  of  these  poor  boys 
should  go  to  the  rear;  they  are  not  able  for  duty.' 
Passing  his  eyes  searchingly  along  the  weakened 
ranks  of  Scales'  brigade  he  turned  to  Gen.  Trimble 
and  touchingly  added,  'I  miss  in  this  brigade  the 
faces  of  many  dear  friends.'  * 

I,i  a  few  weeks  some  of  us  were  removed  from  the 
town  to  a  grove  near  Uw  wall  that  Longstreet  had 
assaulted.  As  the  ambulances  passed  the  fences  on 
the  Emmittsburg  road,  the  slabs  were  so  completely 
perforated  with  bullet  holes  that  you  could  scarcely 
place  a  half  inch  between  them.  One  inch  and  a 
quarter  board  was  indeed  a  curiosity.  It  was  sixteen 
feel  long  and  fourteen  inches  wide  and  was  perforated 
with  eight  hundred  and  thirty-six  musket  balls.  I 
learned  afterwards  that  the  board  was  taken  posses- 
sion of  by  an  agent  of  the  Pennsylvania  Historical 
Society.  This  board  was  on  that  part  of  the  fence 
where  Scales'  brave  little  brigade  crossed  it." 
This  brigade  was  composed  of  the  10th,  23rd  and 
37th  Virginia,  the  Maryland,  battalion 
STEUART's  and  the  1st  and  3rd  North  Carolina. 
brigade.  When  (Jen.  Ed.  Johnson,  supported  by 
two  of  Kodes'  brigades,  made  his  attack 
on  the  morning  of  the  third  day,  this  brigade  dis- 
played conspicuous  gallantry.  Had  Gen.  Longstreet 
moved  forward  at  the  same  time,  the  story  of  Gettys- 
burg  might  have  been  written  very  differently.  There 
was  not  an  indifferent  company  in  this  brigade. 
All  were  choice  troops.  The  3rd  North  Carolina  pos- 
sessed in  a  pre-eminent  degree  the  mental  obtuseness 
peculiar  to  so  many  North  Carolina  troops.    Try  as 


G8  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

they  would,  they  never  could  master  the  art  of  as- 
saulting entrenchments  or  fighting*  all  day  in  an  open 
field  without  having  somebody  hurt.  In  the  Sharps- 
burg  campaign  it  had  more  men  killed  and  wounded 
than  any  regiment  in  the  army.  At  Chancellorsville 
there  were  only  three— all  North  Carolina— whose 
casualties  were  greater,  and  at  Gettysburg  (losing 
fifty  per  cent.)  it  headed  the  list  for  its  division.  The 
1st  North  Carolina,  a  somewhat  smaller  regiment,  in 
number  of  casualties  always  followed  close  behind 
the  Third,  except  at  Mechanicsville,  when  it  went  far 
ahead.  It  was  indeed  also  one  of  those  fool  regi- 
ments which  could  never  learn  the  all-important  les- 
son which  so  many  of  their  more  brilliant  comrades 
found  no  difficulty  in  acquiring. 

Col.  Fox  in  his  ••Regimental  Losses,"  says:  ''To 
all  this  some  may  sneer  and  some  may  say,  'Cui 
Bono?'  If  so  let  it  be  remembered  that  there  are 
other  reasons  than  money  or  patriotism  which  in- 
duce men  to  risk  life  and  limb  in  war.  There  is  the 
love  of  glory  and  the  expectation  of  honorable  recog- 
nition ;  but  the  private  in  the  ranks  expects  neither ; 
his  identity  is  merged  in  that  of  his  regiment ;  to  him 
the  regiment  and  its  name  is  everything ;  he  does  not 
expect  to  see  his  own  name  appear  upon  the  page  of 
history,  and  is  content  with  the  proper  recognition 
of  the  old  command  in  which  he  fought.  But  he  is 
jealous  of  the  record  of  his  regiment  and  demands 
credit  for  every  shot  it  faced  and  every  grave  it  filled. 
The  bloody  laurels  for  which  a  regiment  contends 
will  always  be  awarded  to  the  one  with  the  longest 
roll  of  honor.  Scars  are  the  true  evidence  of  wounds, 
and  regimental  scars  can  be  seen  only  in  its  record 
of  casulties." 


Pickett  on  Pettigrew?  GO 

How  much  punishment  must  d  body  of  troops  re- 
ceive before  they  can,  without  discredit 
defeat  to  themselves,  confess  that  they  have 
with  HONOR,  been  defeated?  In  answer  it  may  be 
stated  that  in  front  of  Marye's  Hill  at 
Fredericksburg,  Maegher's  and  Zook's  brigades  lost 
in  killed  and  wounded,  respectively,  thirty-six  and 
twenty-six  per  cent.,  and  that  the  killed  and  wounded 
of  the  fifteen  Pennsylvania  regiments,  constituting* 
Meade's  division,  which  broke  through  Jackson's  line, 
was36  per  cent.  This  division  was  not  only  repulsed 
but  route;!,  and  yet  they  were  deservedly  considered 
amongst  the  very  best  troops  in  their  army.  Ordi- 
narily it  may  be  safely  said  that  a  loss  of  twenty-five 
per  cent,  satisfies  all  the  requirements  of  military 
honor.  Ordinarily  is  said  advisedly,  for  in  our  army 
very  much  depended  upon  knowing  from  what  State 
the  regiment  or  brigade  hailed  before  it  could  be  de- 
cided whether  or  not  it  was  justified  in  retreating. 
When  on  the  afternoon  of  the  third  day  of  July,  1863, 
Pettigrew's,  Trimble's  and  Pickett's  divisions  march- 
ed into  that  ever-to-be  remembered  slaughter  pen, 
there  was  one  regiment  in  the  first  named  division, 
the  11th  Mississippi,  which  entered  the  assault  fresh, 
carrying  in  325  officers  and  men.  After  losing  202 
killed  and  wounded,  it  with  its  brigade,  left  the  field 
in  disorder.  Correspondents  of  Virginia  newspapers 
witnessing  their  defeat  accused  them  of  bad  behavior. 
Virginian  historians  repeated  their  story  and  the 
slander  of  brave  men,  who  had  lost  sixty  per  cent. 
before  retreating,  lives  to  this  day.  In  the  spring 
of  1862  an  army,  consisting  of  ten  regiments  of  in- 
fantry, one  of  calvary  and  two  batteries  of  artillery, 
was  defeated  in  the  valley  and  the  loss  in  killed  and 


70  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

wounded  was  four  hundred  and  fifty-five.  Id  the 
summer  of  1863  there  were  eight  regiments  in  the 
same  division  who  took  part  in  a  certain  battle  and 
were  defeated;  but  they  did  not  confess  themselves 
beaten  ?till  the  number  of  their  killed  and  wounded 
amounted  to  two  thousand  and  two  (2,002)— a  loss 
so  great  that  it  never  was  before  or  afterwards 
equalled  in  our  army  or  in  any  American  army.  In 
the  first  instance  all  of  the  troops  were  from  Virginia 
and  as  consolation  for  their  defeat  they  received  a 
vote  of  thanks  from  the  Confederate  Congress.  In 
the  second  case  five  of  the  regiments  were  from  North 
Carolina  and  three  from  Mississippi.  Did  our  Con- 
gress thank  them  for  such  unprecedented  display  of 
endurance?  Xo.  indeed!  Corrupted  as  it  was  by 
Richmond  flattery  and  dominated  by  Virginian 
opinion;  the  only  wonder  is  that  it  retrained  from  a 
vote  of  ( -ensure. 

Four  North  Carolina  infantry  regiments,  29th, 
39th,   58th   and   60th,  and    one  of 

western  A.EMY.  cavalry,  served  in  the  Western 
army   and    did    so    with   credit  to 

themselves  and  State. 

The  15th,  27th, 46th and  48th  regiments  composed 
this  brigade.     It  met  with   its  greatest 

cook's  losses  at  Sharpsburg,  Fredericksburg, 
brigade.  Bristoe  Station  and  the  Wilderness.  The 
15th,  while  in  Cobb's  brigade,  suffered 
great  loss  at  Malvern  Hill  in  addition  to  above.  The 
48th  fought  at  Oak  Grove  June  25th.  the  first  of  the 
seven  days'  battles,  and  suffered  severely.  The  27th 
was  probably  more  praised  for  its  conduct  at  Sharps- 
burg than  any  regiment  in  the  army. 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  71 

The  24th,  25th,  35th,  49th  and  56th  made  up  this 
brigadi  .  it  probably  met  with  its  great- 
ransom's  est  loss  at  Malvern  Hill.  The24th  of  this 
brigade,  brigade  and  the  14th  of  Geo.  B.  Ander- 
son's both  claim  that  after  this  battle 
their  dead  were  found  nearest  to  where  the  enemy's 
artillery  had  stood.  The  brigade  also  displayed  con- 
spicuous gallantry  at  Sharpsburg,  Fredericks!  >urg 
and  Drury's  Bluff. 

Gov.  Vance  called  them  his  ''seed  wheat."  There 
were  four  regiments  and  one  battalion  of 

junior  these  troops.  They  were  used  for  the 
reserves,  most  part  to  guard  bridgesfrom  raiders, 
but  a  large  part  of  them  fought  at  Wise's 
Fork,  below  Kinston,  and  at  Benton ville,  where  they 
acquitted  themselves  creditably.  A  witness  has  told 
the  writer  of  having  seen  one  of  these  children  who  a 
few  days  before  had  Lost  both  eyes  by  a  musket  ball. 
He  said  it  was  the  "saddest  sight  of  a  sad,  sad  war." 

After  the  fall  of  Fort  Fisher  several  battalions  of 
heavy  artillery  which  had  been  occupy- 
"red  leg"  ing  the  other  forts  near  the  mouth  of 
infantry,  the  Cape  Fear,  were  withdrawn  and 
armed  as  infantry,  joined  Johnston's 
army.  Xo  troops  ever  fought  better  than  they  did 
;:;  Kinston  and  Bentonville.  At  the  latter  battle  one 
of  these  battalions  was  commanded  by  Lt.  Col.  Jno. 
D.  Taylor,  who  lost  an  arm  on  that  occasion. 

While  the  notices  of  the  pamphlet  have  been  gener- 
i 'rally  favorable,     it  was   not  to  be  ex- 

the  critics,  pected  that  all  would  be  so.  There  are 
those  who  see  no  need    for  reopening 

the  question  herein  discussed.     While  confessing  that 


72  Pickett  or  Pettigkew? 

a  part  of  our  troops  have  been  directly  wronged  by 
slanderous  words  and  all  them  wronged  by  implica- 
tion, they  assert  that  time  only  is  required  to  make 
all  things  even,  and  that  the  dead  past  should  be  al- 
lowed to  bury  its  dead.  Peace  loving  souls  they 
deprecate  controversy,  believing  that  from  it  will  re- 
sult only  needless  heart  burnings. 

Then  again  there  are  others  who  object  not  only  to 
the  tone  and  temper  of  the  article,  but  to  the  mere 
statement  of  indisputable  facts.  There  should  be, 
they  say,  a  feeling  of  true  comradeship  among  all 
who  have  served  in  the  same  army,  especially  in  such 
an  army  as  ours.  That  comrades  should  assist  and 
defend  each  other  in  person  and  reputation,  and 
under  no  circumstances  should  anything  be  done  or 
said  to  wound  or  offend.  To  admit  that  there  has 
been  provocation  in  one  direction  does  not  justify 
provocation  in  another,  for  two  wrongs  never  yet 
made  a  right.  That  to  write  of  anything  to  the  dis- 
credit of  a  part  of  the  army  of  Northern  Virginia  is 
to  a  certain  extent  to  injure  the  reputation  of  the 
whole  army,  and  that  a  sentiment  of  loyalty  to  that 
army  and  love  for  its  head  should  prompt  its  veter- 
ans to  place  its  honor  above  all  other  considera- 
tions. Some  old  soldiers  within  and  some  without 
the  limits  of  the  State  have  expressed  these  opinions. 
Many  others  may  entertain  them.  It  may  be  they 
are  right.  It  may  be  they  are  wrong.  Who  can  tell? 
However,  letters  never  printed  show  that  there  are 
many  who  think  when  once  an  effort  in  behalf  of  jus- 
tice is  begun  it  should  be  continued  'till  that  end  is 
attained,  and  be  it  remembered  that  the  justice  de- 
manded is  for  the  dead  who  cannot  defend  them- 
selves. 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  73 

The  17th,  42nd,   50th   and  66th   North  Carolina 

composed  this  brigade,  and  it  was  first 

kirkland's    commanded   by  Gen.  Jas.  Martin.    It 

brigade.       was  not  sent  to  Virginia  'till  the  spring 

of  1864,  when  it  was  placed  in  a  divis- 
ion made  up  for  Gen.  Hoke.  It  was  hotly  engaged  in 
tht>  battle  of  Drury's  Bluff  where  Lt.  Col.  Lamb,  of 
the  L7th,  was  mortally  wounded,  at  Cold  Harbor 
where  Cob  Moore,  the  boy  commander  of  the  66th, 
was  killed,  at  Benton ville,  Kinston,  etc.  But  it  is 
probable  that  the.  hard  ships  endured  in  the  trenches 
at  Petersburg  were  responsible  for  more  deaths  than 
all  the  bullets  of  the  enemy. 
Seven  North  Carolina  batteries  served  in  Virginia. 

All  of  them  were  very  efficient,  but  three 
artillery,    of  them  were  so  remarkably  fine  that  it 

is  a  temptation  to  name  them. 
We  had  five  regiments  and  one  battalion  of  cav- 
alry to  serve  in  Virginia.  They  were  the 
cavalry.  9th,  19th,  41st,  59th  and  63rd  North 
Carolina  troops;  but  generally  known  as 
1st,  2nd,  3rd,  4th  and  5th  cavalry  and  the  16th  bat- 
talion. If  space  permitted,  incidents  worth  mention- 
ing connected  with  each  of  these  organizations  could 
be  told.  As  it  is,  only  two,  which  may  interest  North 
Carolinians  generally,  and  citizens  of  Halifax  county 
in  particular,  will  be  mentioned.  In  the  summer  of 
L864  when  General  Butler  came  so  near  capturing 
Petersburg,  at  that  time  defenseless,  the  16th  North 
Carolina  battalion  was  picketing  the  road  by  which 
the  Federals  were  approaching.  It  was  then  that 
this  battalion,  assisted  by  two  light  field  guns,  acted 
with  so  much  spirit  that  the  advance  of  Butler's 
men  was  so  delayed  that  time  was  given  for  troops 
from    Lee's  army  to  arrive  and   man  the  fortifica- 


74  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

tions.  Prominent  among-  the  heroes  on  this  occa- 
sion was  a  Halifax  boy — Lt.  W.  F.  Parker.  On  the 
disastrous  field  of  Five  Forks  our  cavalry  was  not 
only  holding  its  own,  but  was  driving  that  of  the 
enemy  when  the  infantry  gave  way.  This  success  of 
the  cavalry  on  their  part  of  the  line  was  very  nearly 
the  last  ever  gained  by  any  portion  of  our  army. 
They  had  been  fighting  by  squadrons  and  that  com- 
posed of  the  Onslow  and  Halifax  companies  of  the 
3rd  regiment  had  just  made  a  successful  charge, 
when,  looking  to  the  left,  they  suav  the  infantry  re- 
treating in  disorder.  The  squadron  on  this  occasion 
was  commanded  and  led  by  a  Scotland  Neck  mount- 
ed Rifleman,  the  late  Norfleet  Smith — a  brave  officer, 
a  good  citizen  and  a  loyal  friend.  Dear  old  "Boots" 
of  other  days !  Lightly  lie  the  sod  above  your  hon- 
ored head. 

"Earth  has  no  such  soldiers  now, 
Such  true  friends  are  not  found." 

This  was  a  heavy  artillery  regiment  stationed  at 
Fort  Fisher  when  the  final  attack 
thirty-sixth  was  made  upon  this  fort.  After  the 
N.  c.  troops,  fire  from  the  ships  had  dismounted 
.  their  big  guns  and  the  assault  by 
land  was  being  made,  they  snatched  up  their  muskets 
and  showed  the  enemy  how  well  they  could  use  them. 
It  is  now  generally  conceded  that  not  in  the  whole 
war  did  a  body  of  soldiers  ever  struggle  so  long  and 
so  desperately  against  the  inevitable.  From  traverse 
to  traverse,  from  gun-chamber  to  gun-chamber  for 
several  hours  the  hopeless  struggle  went  on.  Capt. 
Hunter's  Halifax  company  had  58  men  killed  and 
wounded  out  of  80  present.  A  letter  from  a,  gallant 
member  of  the  company,  says  : 

"There  never  was  a  formal  surrender.    It  (the  fort) 


Pickett  or  Pettigreav?  75 

was  taken  by  piece-meal — that  is,  one  gun-chamber 
at  a  time."  When  the  capture  of  this  place  was  an- 
nounced in  Richmond  and  before  any  of  the  facts  re- 
garding it  were  known,  the  abuse  and  vilification 
heaped  upon  its  devoted  garrison  was  something  as- 
tonishing- even  for  that  very  censorious  city. 

This  brigade  was  composed  of  the  8th,  31st,  51st 
and  01st  North  Carolina.  It  served  in 
clingman's  South  Carolina  a  great  part  of  the  war, 
brigade,  and  for  the  gallant  conduct  of  the  51st 
in  the  defense  of  Fort  Wagner,  this  regiment  was 
complimented  in  orders.  The  brigade  took  a  promi- 
nent part  in  the  brilliant  capture  of  Plymouth.  It 
was  engaged  at  Goldsboro,  Batchelor  Creek — where 
Colonel  Henry  Shaw,  of  the  8th,  was  killed— and  at 
other  points  in  North  Carolina,  before  it  went  to  Vir- 
ginia, which  it  did  early  in  1864.  There  it  became  a 
part  of  the  command  of  Major-General  Hoke.  After 
having  heroically  borne  all  the  privations  and  dan- 
gers which  fell  to  the  lot  of  this  "splendid  division,*' 
as  styled  by  General  Joe  Johnston,  it  surrendered 
with  it  at  Greensboro. 

The  compiler  of  our  Roster  adds  up  the  number  of 
names   printed   in   the  four   volumes, 

NUMBER  of  and  makes  a  total  of  104,498  ;  but  to 
.\.  c.  TROOPS,  arrive  at  an  approximation  of  the  real 
number  many  subtractions,  and  very 
many  more  additions,  will  have  to  be  made. 

The  First  Volunteers  was  a  six  months  regiment 
(twelve  companies)  and  was  disbanded  when  its  term 
nlistment  expired.  All  of  its  companies  re-enlist- 
ed, and  thus  these  men  were  counted  twice,  right  of 
these  companies,  with  the  addition  of  two  new  ones, 
becoming  the  famous  Eleventh  regiment.  Many  offi- 
cers were  counted   three,  four,   and   sometimes  live 


76  Pickett  or  Pettigeew? 

times  in  cases  where  they  had  been  successively  pro- 
moted. There  were  a  great  many  transfers  from  one 
regiment  to  another,  and  in  nearly  every  instance  the 
individual  transferred  would  be  counted  with  both 
regiments.  The  Fourth  cavalry  battalion  was  incor- 
porated in  a  regiment,  and  its  271  names  are  count- 
ed twice.  The  Seventh  battalion  (detailed  artisans) 
contains  the  names  of  402  men  who  were  detailed 
from  regiments  in  active  service,  and  of  course  they 
were  counted  twice.  All  of  these  repetitions  would 
probably  reduce  the  number  given  by  the  compiler  of 
the  State  Roster  by  3, 600  and  make  it  about  100,900. 
On  the  other  hand  this  number  should  probably  be 
increased  by  9,100.  One  entire  regiment  (the  68th), 
which  carried  upon  its  rolls  at  least  1,000  names,  is 
not  counted,  for  none  of  its  rolls  could  be  found.  In 
many  regiments  the  rolls  printed  were  those  in  use 
the  last  year  of  the  war,  when  they  had  been  reduced 
to  skeletons.  For  instance,  in  the  60th  regiment  the 
rolls  of  only  nine  companies  could  be  found,  which 
carried  upon  them  only  467  names.  The  surviving 
officers  of  the  missing  company  getting  together, 
made  out  a  roll  from  memory  embracing  the  whole 
war,  and  the  number  of  names  was  114.  So  it  is  cer- 
tain that  this  regiment  should  have  had  more  than 
twice  as  many  names  as  it  is  credited  with.  The 
fighting  27th  is  only  allowed  802  officers  and  men, 
when  the  26th  and  28th  are  both  given  considerably 
more  than  1,800.  The  37th  is  credited  with  1,928 
names,  while  the  54th  has  only  663.  Both  of  these 
regiments  served  in  the  army  of  Northern  Virginia, 
and  it  is  a  fair  presumption  that  they  both  received 
about  the  same  number  of  conscripts.  Basing  his 
calculations  upon  our  Roster,  and  some  other 
sources  of  information,  the  writer  has  arrived  at  the 


Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  77 

conclusion  that  the  number  of  soldiers  furnished  by 
North  Carolina  to  the  Confederacy  was  about  110,- 
000.  Of  course  hundreds  of  this  number  shortly 
after  enlisting  were  discharged  as  unfit  for  service. 
Many  more  should  have  been  discharged  and  were 
not.  but  were  required  to  undergo  hardships  that 
they  were  physically  unable  to  bear,  and  the  conse- 
nt! -nee  was  that  they  died  by  thousands. 

Of  the  number  furnished,  nineteen  thousand  six 
hundred  and  seventy-three  are  known  to  have  been 
killed  outright  or  died  of  wounds.  Other  thousands 
lost  legs  and  arms,  or  were  otherwise  mutilated  for 
life.  Twenty  thousand  six  hundred  and  two  are 
known  to  have  died  of  disease;  and  very  many  of 
these  deaths  are  directly  attributable  either  to  the 
ignorance  of  our  surgeons  or  the  misdirected  zeal 
that  prompted  them  to  retain  in  the  service  men 
who  \\ere  unfit  for  its  duties,  many  of  them  being- 
little  better  than  confirmed  invalids. 

The  great  statistician.  Colonel  Fox,  says:  "The 
phrase,  'Military  population,'  as  used  in  the  eighth 
census,  repi*esents  the  white  males  between  the  ages 
of  18  and  45,  and  included  all  who  were  unfit  for  mil- 
itary duty  on  account  of  physical  or  mental  infirmi- 
ties. These  exempts — which  include  also  all  cases  of 
minor  defects — constitute  in  every  country  one-fifth 
of  the  military  population."  Taking  one-fifth  from 
our  military  population  we  should  have  fur- 
nished to  the  Confederate  armies  ninety-two  thous- 
and two  hundred  and  ninety-seven  soldiers.  Butassaid 
above  we  (lid  send  to  the  front  about  one  hundred  and 
ten  thousand,  thirty-six  per  cent,  of  whom  died. 


APPENDIX. 


East  Las  Vegas,  N.  M. 
Enclosed  please  find  25c.  in  stamps  in  payment  for 
Pettigrew's  Charge.  I  have  read  it  with  much  inter- 
est. I  think  you  have  made  a  good  case  and  that 
you  are  right.  I  was  at  Vicksburg  the  same  day — 
the  Adjt.  81st  Ills.  V.ols.  Infty. 

I  am  .yours  truly, 

J.  J.  Fitzgerald, 
Post  Dept.  Coind'r  Dept.  N.  M.  G.  A.  R. 

Abbeville,  S.  C,  July  1st,  1896. 
Dear  Sir: — I  enclose  25c.  in  stamps  for  which  be 
kind  enough  to  send  me  your  pamphlet  entitled, 
"Pickett  or  Pettigrew?"  if  you  have  any  copies  on 
hand.  I  recently  saw  a  copy  in  Charleston.  You 
agree  with  me  about  Pettigrew  and  Pickett.  I  was 
Sergt.  Major  of  Orr's  Rifles,  McGowan's  brigade,  Wil- 
cox's division.  Some  years  ago  I  was  looking  at  the 
cyclorama  of  Gettysburg  in  Philadelphia.  The 
Yankee  who  explained  the  battle  said  that  A.  P.  Hill's 
men  advanced  further  than  Pickett's,  and  pointed 
out  to  the  crowd  where  a  number  of  North  Caro- 
linians fell  at  the  extreme  front.  Yours  trul3x, 

Robt.  R.  Hemphill. 


"JUSTICE  FOR  OUR  DEAD  IS  ALL  WE  WANT." 

Washington,  D.  C,  Dec.  29th,  1888. 
Mjr  Dear  Sir:— Circumstances  here  have  caused  me 
to  be  so  very  busy  of  late  that  I  have  not  had  time 
sooner  to  acknowledge  your  courtesy  in  sending  me 
the  pamphlet  on  the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  I  seize 
the  occasion  of  the  holidays  to  do  so.  The  pamphlet 
was  read  by  every  member  of  1113^  family  with  the 


Appendix.  79 

keenest  interest.  I  have  to  tliaiikyou  from  my  heart 
for  writing"  it.  No  living-  man  suffers  more  from  these 
mean  and  jealous  attempts  to  deprive  North  Carolina, 
of  her  proper  honor  than  I  do.  I  sometimes  almost 
get  sick  over  them.  I  have  always  regarded  the 
effort  of  some  Virginians,  not  all,  thank  God,  to  dep- 
recate the  North  Carolina  troops  in  the  battle  of 
Gettysburg  as  simply  a  damnable  and  dastardly 
outrage.  *******  *  * 
But  let  us  take  courage.  The  simple  truth  will  ulti- 
mately prevail— simple  justice  is  all  we  want  for  our 
dead.  Your  friend  and  fellow  North  Carolinian. 


[The  above  was  written  by  one  who  loved  North 
Carolina  and  one  whom  North  Carolina  loved  to 
honor.] 

A  WISE  JUDGE. 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  letter  written  by 
a  resident  of  Chicago,  Major  Chas.  A.  Hale,  who  has 
the  honor  of  having  served  in  the  Fifth  New  Hamp- 
shire, a  regiment  which  fought  gallantly  at  Gettys- 
burg, and  is  distinguished  for  having  sustained  the 
greatest  losses  in  battle  of  any  infantry  or  cavalry 
regiment  in  the  whole  Union  army  : 

"There  is  not  a  shadow  of  a  doubt  in  my  mind  but 
that  the  sons  of  North  Carolina,  Tennessee  and  Miss- 
issippi carved  on  the  tablets  of  history  equal  laurels 
with  the  sons  of  Virginia  in  the  great  events  of  that 
supreme  attempt  to  gain  victory  on  Cemetery  Ridge. 
Pettigrew  and  Trimble  deserve  equal  honors  with 
Picked,  and  if  we  weigh  with  judicial  exactness  more, 
for  impartial  evidence  proves  that  they  suffered  in  a 
greater  degree,  and  forced  their  way  nearer  the  lines 
where  pitiless  fate  barred  their  entrance.  The  near- 
est point  reached  by  any  troops  was  Bryan's  barn; 
this  is  made  conclusive  by  evidence  on  both  sides.  If 
there  were  a  thousand  Confederates  inside  the  stone 
wall  at  the  angle  more  than  two-thirds  of  that  num- 
ber  must  have  been  Pettigrew's  men." 


80  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

HOW  PICKETT'S  DIVISION  'ABSQUATULATED.' 

Pickett's  division  of  the  army  of  Northern  Virginia 
is  rarely  heard  of  either  before  or  after  Gettysburg*. 
No  body  of  troops  during-  the  last  war  made  as  much 
reputation  on  so  little  fighting.  Newspaper  men  did 
the  work  by  printer's  ink  and  the  casualties  were 
small. 

Fourteen  hundred  and  ninety-nine  were  captured 
at  Gettysburg.  More  than  this  number  "absquat- 
ed"  when  Petersburg  fell  and  there  was  a  probability 
of  leaving  Virginia.  Pickett's  division  made  a  poor 
show  at  the  surrender  at  Appomattox. — Abbeville, 
(S.  C.)  Medium. 


.ESOP'S  FABLE— THE  DOG  AND  THE  BONE. 

"They  digged  a  pit, 

They  digged  it  deep. 

They  digged  it  for  their  brothers ; 

But  it  so  fell  out  that  they  fell  in 

The  pit  that  was  digged  for  t'others." 


An  interesting  contribution  to  the  history  of  the 
battle  of  Gettysburg-is  afforded  in  a  pamphlet  essay 
entitled  "Pickett  or  Pettigrew?"  by  Capt.  W.  R. 
Bond,  a  Confederate  staff-officer  in  the  army  of 
Northern  Virginia.  Capt.  Bond's  desire  is  to  correct 
the  commonly  received  accounts  of  the  parts  taken  in 
that  battle  by  the  troops  commanded  by  Gens.  Pick- 
ett and  Pettigrew.  *  *  *  *  *  * 
(Ten.  Longstreet,  according  to  Capt.  Bond,  is  largely 
responsible  for  the  current  misrepresentation  of  the 
Southern  side  of  the  story  of  Gettj^sburg,  and  he  tells 
in  detail  a  curious  story  of  the  favoritism  displayed 
all  through  the  war  towards  everything  Virginian  at 
the  expense  of  the  soldiers  from  the  other  Southern 
States. — Springfield  Republican. 


We  have  read  with  much  interest  a  pamphlet  by 
Capt.  W.  It.  Bond,  entitled  "Pickett  or  Pettigrew?" 
in  which  the  writer,  a  North  Carolinian,  proposed  to 


Appendix.  81 

show,  and  does  show  very  conclusively, that  the  loss- 
es of  Pettigrew's  North  Carolina  brigade  in  this 
charge  were  greater  than  those  sustained  by  Pickett 
or,  indeed,  by  any  command  in  the  army.  He  claims 
bhat  the  twenty-sixth  regiment  of  this  brigade  suffer- 
ed greater  loss  than  that  of  any  command  in  modern 
fcimes.  The  fate  of  one  company  in  this  regiment  re- 
calls Thermopylae;  it  was  literally  wiped  out — every 
man  in  it  was  cither  killed  orwounded.  Thispamph- 
lel  makes  a  glorious  showing  for  the  resolute  courage 
and  intrepidity  of  the  North  Carolina  troops,  but  it 
is  endorsed  by  the  brave  boys  here  who  fought  by 
their  side.  It  also  pays  a  high  tribute  to  the  Ten- 
nesseeans  engaged  in  that  bloody  fight,  according 
them  the  place  they  occupied  in  it  and  the  meed  of 
praise  they  justly  won. — Gallatin  (Tenn.)  Examiner. 


It  contains  some  interesting  statements  from  the 
Southern,  and  especially  from  North  Carolina,  point 
of  view,  the  object  of  its  author  being  to  show  that 
undue  credit  has  been  given  to  Pickett's  Virginia 
brigades  at  the  expense  of  the  brigade  of  Pettigrew 
from  North  Carolina.  The  author  contends  that  un- 
due prominence  has  been  given  to  the  part  taken  by 
Virginia  troops  in  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  owing  to 
the  leading  part  taken  by  Virginia  newspapers  and 
Virginia  historians  in  reporting  the  events  of  the  war. 
lie  shows  that  North  Carolina  leads  in  the  report 
given  in  Col.  Fox's  paper  on  the  "Chances  of  Being- 
Hit  in  Battle."  Of  the  troops  losing  the  most  men 
Mississippi  comes  next,  and  Virginia  does  not  appear 
at  all.  He  has  suggestive  reference  also  to  the  possi- 
bility of  Gen.  Longstreet  being  of  Gascon  descent. 
Altogether,  his  little  pamphlet  is  lively  reading. — 
Army  and  Navy  Journal. 


A  review  of  this  pamphlet  ought  to  and   shall  be 
carefully   written.  "::"         His  reference  to 

Gen.  Pettigrew  is  in  admirable  taste  and  will  evoke 
new  sorrow  for  the  untimely  death  of  that  cultivated 
gentleman  and  splendid  soldier;  but  the  dedication 


82  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

to  Hill's  corps  is  marred  by  a  spirit  which  no  provo- 
cation can  justify.  An  author  who  loses  his  temper 
always  breaks  the  force  of  his  argument  and  weakens 
his  cause.  And  so  in  the  present  case  some  salient 
facts  which  Capt.  Bond  presents  lose  most  of  their 
strength  and  effect  by  the  spirit  in  which  he  clothes 
them.  *       *        And  suppose  the   charge  of 

Pickett  was  given  undue  prominence  in  the  general 
history  of  the  war,  (and  we  do  not  dispute  it),  was  it 
kind  or  proper  on  that  account  to  make  a  systematic 
attempt  to  vitiate  the  record  of  all  the  service  render- 
ed by  Virginia  to  the  <  confederate  arms?  *  * 
And  it  is  a  worthy  duty  to  resurrect  those  brave 
deeds  from  oblivion,  a  duty  which  Capt.  Bond  is  well 
competent  to  discharge,  and  in  the  discharge  of 
winch  every  Confederate  Virginian  would  bid  him 
"God  speed."  But  he  will  pardon  us  for  saying  that 
the  task,  to  serve  any  good  purpose,  must  be  ap- 
proached in  a-  different  tone  and  temper  than  that 
displayed  in  his  recent  pamphlet,  for  we  have  passed 
by  much  of  insinuation  and  allegation  his  work  con- 
tains, hoping  that  a  calmer  frame  of  mind  will  lead 
the  author  to  vindicate  in  another  edition  the  name 
and  fame  of  the  gallant  Carolinians  without  seeking 
to  pluck  one  laurel  from  the  wreath  with  which  friend 
and  foe  have  crowned  the  Virginia  charge  at  Gettys- 
burg.—Petersburg  Index-Appeal. 


After  an  inexplicable  silence  of  nearly  twenty-five 
years,  the  North  Carolinians  are  beginning  to  assert 
themselves  in  regard  to  the  charge  on  the  third  day 
at  Gettysburg.  Every  student  of  the  history  of  the 
war  knows  that  it  was  not  Pickett,  of  Virginia,  but 
Pettigrew,  of  North  Carolina,  who  was  entitled  to  the 
principal  credit  for  the  charge.  Pickett  started  out 
in  command  of  the  charging  column,  but  stopped 
when  within  half  a  mile  of  our  line,  while  Pettigrew 
went  on  with  his  North  Carolinians  and  reached  the 
farthest  point  attained  by  any  rebel  troops. — Na- 
tional Tribune. 


Appendix.  83 


Hall  and  Sledge  are  the  publishers  of  this  remark 
able  pamphlet,  which  not  only  disparages  Virginia 
and  Virginia  papers  as  bhey  were  during  the  war  be- 
tween the  States,  but  even  Pickett's  Virginians.  The 
world  has  passed  upon  all  these  matters,  and  its 
verdict  will  not  be  changed. — Richmond  Dispatch. 


VY.  W.  Owen,  of  New  Orleans,  late  Lt.  Colonel  of 
Washington  artillery,  A.  N.  V.,  writes:  "I  have  just 
seen  a  newspaper  account  of  'Pickett's  charge,'  by 
Capt.  W.  R.  Bond,  and  am  anxious  to  obtain  a  copy. 
I  was  at  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  and. I  think  his  ac- 
count of  it  will  agree  with  my  idea  about  it,  at  least 
as  far  as  Pickett  was  concerned."  This  little  book  is 
well  written  and  the  author  corrects  a  number  of 
errors  which  have  been  published  about  certain  bat- 
tles of  the  late  unpleasantness.  It  is  worth  reading 
— Tallahassee  Floridian. 


The  Wilmington  Star  noticing  an  article  in  the 
Richmond  Times: 

"We  see  from  the  Richmond  Times  that  a  reply  is 
preparing  to  Captain  W.  R.  Bond's  stinging  pam- 
phlet on  the  battle  of  Gettysburg.  The  Virginians 
do  not  intend  to  have  it  go  down  to  history  that 
North  Carolinians  did  as  well  at  Gettysburg-,  or  bet- 
ter, than  the  much  trumpeted  division  of  Pickett. 
North  Carolinians  must  see  to  it  that  the  brave  men 
who  made  such  a  splendid  record  at  Gettysburg  are 
neither  defamed  nor  robbed. 


T.  Blyler,  Captain  in  the  12th  New  Jersey,  writes: 
"Your  division  (meaning  Pettigrew's)  advanced  in 
our  front  nnd  we  bear  willing  testimony  to  your 
bravery  and  to  penetrating  farther  than  Pickett." 

W.  H.  Shaver,  of  Kingston,  Pa.,  who  belonged  to 
the  Philadelphia  brigade,  writes:  "If  convenient,  say 
to  Capt".  Bond  that  I  have  read  his  pamphlet  with 
very  great  interest  as  well  as  astonishment,  for  we 
of  the  North  know  of  no  other  soldiers  in  the  charge 


84  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

but  'Pickett  and  his  Virginians..'    It  is  a  well  written 
article  and  will  cause  history  to  be  re-written." 

•!.  1).  Yautier,  of  Philadelphia,  Historian  of  the 
881  h  Regiment  of  Penn.  Vols.,  writes:  ktI  think  it  an 
excellent  treatise,  it  appears  to  be  the  impression 
thai  the  Virginians  did  about  all  the  fighting  on  the 
Southern  side  during  the  war.  To  be  a  Virginian 
was  to  bo  all  that  was  good.  The  record  shows  that 
the  North  Carolinians  were  away  up  head." 

W.  E.  Potter,  Colonel  of  the  12th  New  Jersey, 
writes  :  "In  an  address  delivered  by  myself  at  Gettys- 
burg May,  1886,  I  called  attention  to  the  gallant 
conduct  of  the  North  Carolina  troops  and  the  extent 
of  their  losses  when  compared  with  Pickett's.  So  far 
as  1  know  my  speech  was  the  first  publication  to 
point  out  the  fact  that  the  troops  of  Pickett  consti- 
tuted tee  minor  portion  of  the  assaulting  column." 

Col.  George  Meade,  of  Philadelphia,  the  son  of  Gen. 
Meade,  who  commanded  the  Federal  forces  in  this 
battle,  writes:  "I  am  glad  to  find  in  it  certain  facts 
that  confirm  what  has  been  my  own  impression  as 
to  the  important  part  taken  by  the  North  Carolina 
troops  in  the  assault  at  Gettysburg  on  the  after- 
noon of  the  Svi]  of  July.  I  must  congratulate  you 
on  having  presented  your  case  so  strongly." 


Captain  W.  II.  Bond,  a  North  Carolinian  and  a 
Confederate  soldier,  who  agrees  with  Col.  Batchelder, 
of  Massachusetts,  the  Government  historian  of  the 
battle  of  Gettysburg,  that  the  brilliant  military  ex- 
ploit popularly  known  as  'Pickett's  charge'  should 
be  called  'Longstreet's  assault,'  has  written  a  pam- 
phlet to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  Pettigrew's 
division  of  North  Carolina  troops  in  this  charge  went 
further  and  stayed  longer  and  had  more  men  killed 
than  Pickett's  division  of  Virginians.  Cnptain  Bond 
presents  some  interesting  statements  in  the  course  of 
his  narrative. 

It  may  be  added  that  the  North  Carolinians  also 
lost,  by  "one  of  the  frequent  mischances  that  govern 
the  direction  of  popular  praise,   their  share  of  the 


Appendix.  85 

y   that  their  bravery  should   have  gained,   Mud 
which  Pick  vi  ■:  »n  gathen  »r  itself. — Phil- 

>lphia  Press. 

GEN.  ULYSSES  DOUBLEDAY. 

Capt.  Bond's  pamphlet  showing  that  Pettigrew 
and  not  Pickett  is  entitled  to  the  glory  that  graced 
the  C<  >nfederate  banners  at  the  battle  of  Gettysburg, 
is  bearing  fruit.  It  is  bound  to  convince  any  fair- 
minded  man  who  will  read  it.  A  private  letter  to  the 
author  from  Asheville,  says  that  the  writer  had  a 
long  conversation  with  Gen.  Doubleday,  a  Federal 
officer  and  brother  of  the  Gen.  Doubleday  mentioned 
in  the  pamphlet.  "Gen.  Doubleday  contended,"  con- 
tinues (lie  letter,  "that  Pickett's  men  did  as  so-called 
history  says  they  did,  and  reaped  all  the  glory.*'  I 
asked  him  as  a  personal  favor  to  read  the  essay, 
"Pickett  or  Pettigrew?  '  He  has  just  finished  telling 
his  opinion.  Said  he:  "it  opened  my  eyes.  Your 
brave  men  have  been  slandered.  Capt.  Bond  gives 
chapter  and  verse,   it  is  a  fine  essay." — Weldon  News. 


Mr.  O.  W.  Blacknall,  of  Kittrells,  in  a  letter  to  the 
News  and  Observer  concerning  the  ceremonies  at 
Winchester  last  Friday,  pays  a  high  compliment  to 
it.  W.  R.  Bond's  book,  "Pickett  or  Pettigrew." 
Mr.  Blacknall  mentions  Capt.  Bond's  book  as  being- 
one  of  the  documents  placed  in  the  pocket  of  the  cor- 
nel- stone,  and  adds : 

"I  will  say  in  passing  that  the  scholarly  and  pro- 
found brochure  of  Capt.  Bond— 'Pickett  or  Pettigrew' 
—has  never  received  the  acknowledgment  so  eminent- 
ly its  due.  Therein  he  clearly  shows  the  manner  in 
which  history  was  shaped  to  North  Carolina's  detri- 
ment. The  Richmond  papers  seeking  to  please  their 
patrons,  chiefly  Virginians,  to  put  it  mildly,  laid 
great  stress  on  the  services  of  Virginia  troops  and 
little  on  their  failures.  They  killed  and  made  alive 
reputations  of  men  as  they  saw  lit.  Pollard  and 
other  historians  writing  from   the  Southern  stand- 


86  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

point  followed  largely  the  Richmond  papers,  and 
thus  history  was  miswritten  to  our  apparently  irre- 
trievable harm.  Capt.  Bond's  pamphlet  should  be 
widely  read  and  its  substance  preserved  in  history." 
— Scotland  Neck  Commonwealth. 


LONGSTREET  AND  N.  C.  SOLDIERS. 

We  copy  a  brief  communication  that  will  serve  as 
an  eye-opener  to  Longstreet's  real  claim  upon  North 
Carolina  sympathizers.    Our  correspondent  writes: 

"There  are  some  old  soldiers  from  North  Carolina, 
who  have  always  liked  and  admired  Gen.  Longstreet 
and  they  regret  to  see  the  strictures  upon  him  in  a 
recently  published  pamphlet.  If  they  will  read  care- 
fully the  foil  owing-  facts  from  the  official  records  re- 
lating to  the  Sharpsburg  campaign,  they  may  feel 
that  their  partiality  has  been  misplaced. 

"General  Longstreet  had  in  this  campaign  nine 
North  Carolina  regiments,  whose  killed  and  wounded 
averaged  one  hundred  and  four.  In  his  corps  there 
were  eighty  regiments  from  other  States  and  their  av- 
erage was  sixty-four.  In  the  eighty  there  were  twen- 
ty-two Virginia  regiments  and  their  average  was 
thirty-two.  The  48th  North  Carolina  had  more  men 
killed  and  wounded  than  any  regiment  of  its  corps. 
The  3rd  North  Carolina,  of  Jackson's  corps,  had 
more  men  killed  and  wounded  than  any  regiment  in 
the  army.  In  fact,  more  than  the  entire  brigades  of 
Generals  Armistead  and  Garnett  combined.  At  the 
conclusion  of  his  report  of  the  operations  of  this 
campaign,  General  Longstreet  mentions  the  names 
of  thirtj^-eight  officers,  who  had  distinguished  them- 
selves for  gallantry.  In  this  number  there  is  not  one 
brigade  or  regiment  commander  from  North  Caro- 
lina."— Messenger . 

REGIMENTAL  LOSSES. 

A  study  of  regimental  actions  shows  clearly  that 
the  battalions  which  faced  musketry  the  steadiest, 
the  longest  and  the  oftenest,  were  the  ones  whose  ag- 


Appendix.  87 

gregate  loss  during  the  war  was  greatest.  Fighting 
regimen  ody  wake  behind  them  ;  retreat- 

ing regiments  lose  few  men.  At  Chancellorsville  the 
heaviest  losses  were  in  the  corps  that  stood — not  in 
the  one  that  broke. — Fox. 


W.  K.  B.,  in  Wilmington  Messenger: 

I  write  you  a  letter,  as  I  wish  to  tell  you  about  cer- 
tain i  onversations  I  lately  had  with  an  old  Confeder- 
ate—an officer  of  high  rani:,  and  one  who,  after  the 
war,  was  on  intimate  terms  with  Gen.  Lee.  It  will  also 
contain  a  copy  of  a  letter  received  by  me  some  two 
months  ago  from  a  member  of  Gen.  Lee's  staff,  and 
some  other  things  which  I  think  will  interest  your  old 
sotdier  read*  rs.  In  one  of  the  eon  rersations  referred 
to  mention  was  made  of  the  letters  of  General  Cobb 
(who  was  killed  at  Fredericksburg)  which  have  lately 
been  published.  In  one  of  these  letters  General  Cobb 
says  that  Mr.  Davis  and  General  Lee  thought  there 
was  only  one  Soil.'  in  the  Confederacy,  and  that  was 
Virginia.  In  referring  to  it  I  remarked  that,  allow- 
ing a  little  for  exaggeration,  I  did  not  think  he  was 
"  far  wrong;  that  I  supposed  it  was  much  the 
same  in  the  other  States,  and  that  1  knew  of  the  per- 
sistent injustice,  and  sometimes  even  cruelty,  with 
which  North  Carolina  and  her  troops  were  treated. 
He  fit  once  came  to  the  defence  of  General  Lee,  and 
.-..id  he  knew  positively  that  he  was  not  responsible 
for  much  of  the  injustice  of  which  I  complained  ;  that 
in  the  matter  of  appointing  and  promoting  officers 
General  Lee  often  had  v^vy  little  influence.  For  in- 
stance, after  Jackson's  death,  when  the  army  was  re- 
organized and  the  two  corps  made  into  three,  he  was 
bitterly  opposed  to  having  A.  P.  Hill  and  Ewell  for 
forps  commanders.  He  wished  to  have  Rodes— an 
Alabamian — to  command  one  of  them,  and  also 
wished  to  give  a  division  to  Pettigrew  and  he  always 
said  if  his  divisions  and  corps  had  been  commanded 
at  Gettysburg  by  officers  of  his  choice  he  would  have 

gained  that  battle.    But,  said  General ,  as  the 

secretary  of  war  was  a  Virginian,  and  the  influence 


88  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

of  Virginia  politicians  was  so  all-powerful,  both  in  the 
executive  mansion  and  the  halls  of  our  congress,  his 
wishes  were  not  considered.  Though  a  Virginian,  he 
spoke  at  length  of  this  baneful  influence  which  fester- 
ed for  four  years  in  Richmond.  And  just  here  it  may 
be  remarked  that  probably  bhe  most  humiliating 
thing  connected  with  our  struggle  for  independence 
— more  humiliating  even  than  defeat — was  the  fact 
that  North  Carolinians  and  other  free  born  men 
should  ever  have  allowed  themselves  to  be  at  all 
dominated  by  a  public  opinion,  which  was  made  by  a 
sorry  lot  of  ignoble  bomb-proof  hunters.  On  one  oc- 
casion I  told  General about  the  letter  I  had  re- 
ceived from  Col.  Venable,  and  how  he  happened  to 
write  it.  That  I  had  heard  reports  as  to  General 
Pickett,  while  the  assault  was  being  made,  which  re- 
flected upon  his  courage,  and  was  disposed  to  doubt 
them,  as  1  had  heard  that  he  had  acted  very  bravely 
in  his  vain  attempt  to  rally  his  division  when  routed 
at  Five  Forks.  I  do  not  think  1  succeeded  in  con- 
vincing him  of  this,  for  I  think  he  believes  yet  that 
General  Pickett  never  went  near  his  troops  on  this 
the  day  of  their  last  battle. 

Wishing  to  know  if  there  were  any  grounds  for 
these  reports,  I  wrote  to  Colonel  Venable,  asking 
him  how  far  into  the  field  General  Pickett  advanced 
with  his  division,  and  how  near  he  was  to  it  when  it 
was  repulsed,  and  the  following  is  his  answer: 

"Remington,  Fauquier  County,  Va. 
"Dear  Sir: — It  has  been  settled  by  officers  of  the 
United  States  army,  that  both  Pettigrew's  and  Pick- 
ett's men  went  to  high  water  mark — that  is,  equally 
far  in  the  charge  at  G ettysburg.  The  Federal  govern- 
ment has  caused  marks  to  be  placed  at  different 
points  on  the  field  with  great  care. 

"The  charge  should  even  be  called  the  charge  of 
Pettigrew's  and  Pickett's  men. 

••Yours  respectfully. 

"Chas  S.  Venable. 
"General  Pettigrew  was  every  inch  a  soldier  and  a 


Appendix.  89 

very  great  loss  to  the  grand  old  army  of  northern 
Virginia.  C.  S.  V." 

It  will  be  seen  that  no  attention  is  paid  to  my 
question,  as  there  is  no  connection  between  it  andthe 
intended  answer.  Tins  may  signify  something  or  it 
may  not.  My  letter  may  have  been  mislaid  and  con- 
tents forgotten.  The  time  has  been  when  the  recep- 
tion of  this  letter  would  have  greatly  gratified  me, 
but  since  1  have  made  a  study  of  the  records  and 
o1  her  authorities  I  have  become  convinced  that,  with 
one  exception,  there  was  not  a  brigade  in  Trimble's 
or  Pettigrew's  divisions  which  did  not  only  equal  but 
really  surpass  any  of  General  Pickett's  in  all  soldier- 
ly qualities  on  that  occasion. 

And  now  for  a  few  of  the  figures  you  some  time  ago 
expressed  the  wish  to  see.  For  the  whole  battle  the 
fifteen  Virginia  regiments  on  the  right  had  in  killed 
and  wounded  1 ,360.  Amongst  those  on  the  left  were 
the  five  North  Carolina  and  three  Mississippi  regi- 
ments, which  constituted  Pettigrew's  and  Davis' brig- 
ades, and  their  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  was  2,002. 

What  part  of  this  latter  loss  was  incurred  on  the 
third  (\i\y  will  never  be  accurately  known;  but  we 
know  from  the  Federals  that  the  artillery  fire  was 
largely  concentrated  upon  these  two  brigades,  and 
we  also  know  from  the  testimony  of  Federal  officers, 
one  of  whom  was  Colonel  Morgan,  General  Hancock's 
chief  of  staff,  that  the  dead  lay  thicker  on  the  ground 
over  which  these  troops  had  passed  than  upon  any 
other  part  of  the  field,  and  if  Ave  did  not  know  these  two 
facts  the  case  of  one  regiment  furnishes  a  key  to  the 
per  rentage  of  killed  and  wounded  in  its  own  brigade 
and  that  of  the  one  immediately  on  its  right.  This 
regiment,  the  Eleventh  Mississippi,  did  no  fighting 
on  the  first  day.  as  it  was  on  detached  service  and 
consequently  met  with  all  its  loss  in  the  fight  of  the 
third.  We  know  how  many  it  carried  in,  and  Dr. 
Guild's  report  informs  us  of  the  loss,  and,  knowing 
these  numbers,  we  know  that  its  per  centage  of  killed 
and  wounded  was  more  than  sixty — a  per  centage  so 
high  that  not  one  Virginia  regiment  ever  made  it, 


90  Pickett  or  Pettigrew? 

and  not  a  great  many  others.  This  and  its  com- 
panion regiment — the  Second  Mississippi — were  old 
troops— veterans  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name— had  fought 
often  and  always  well.  By  referring-  to  the  Sharps- 
burg  Campaign  Series  1.  Vol.  xix.  of  the  records,  a 
comparison  can  be  readily  drawn  between  the  con- 
duct of  these  two  regiments  in  this  campaign  and 
that  of  several  which  were  afterwards  at  Gettysburg 
with  Pickett.  A  comparison  that  were  it  not  so  piti- 
ful would  be  amusing. 

If  Pickett's  troops  carried  in  no  more  than  claimed 
their  per  centage  of  killed  and  wounded  was  twenty- 
eight.  But  in  order  that  their  per  centage  might  ap- 
pear as  high  as  possible,  it  is  probable  their  numbers 
were  always  represented  as  smaller  than  they  were. 
Their  fifteen  regiments  probably  averaged  400.  If 
they  did  not,  they  should  have  done  so,  for  they  did 
not  often  have  anybody  hurt — that  is,  compared 
with  the  troops  in  the  army  from  the  other  States. 
In  the  period  from  the  close  of  the  Richmond  fighting 
to  Gettysburg — one  year— twelve  battles  wTere  fought 
by  the  whole  or  part  of  the  army,  and  in  these  bat- 
tles Archer's  Tennessee,  Lane's  North  Carolina  and 
Scales'  North  <  -arolina  had  3,610 killed  and  wounded. 
Kemper's  Virginia,  Armistead's  Virginia  and  Gar- 
nett's  Virginia  had  772.  We  can  understand  why 
these  people  were  handled  so  tenderly,  for  were  they 
not  made  of  better  clay  than  the  fighters  of  the  army? 
Fine  porcelain  from  the  province  of  Quang  Tong 
were  they — things  of  beauty,  but  fragile. 

In  the  assault  Davis'  brigade  had  about  sixty  per 
cent,  killed  and  wounded.  It  is  probable  that  Petti- 
grew  's  brigade  had  even  a  higher  per  centage,  as  they 
were  somewhat  longer  under  fire.  It  is  possible  that 
Pickett's  was  twenty-five.  But  whatever  it  was, 
after  all,  their  pretty  wheelings  and  lovely  drum 
major's  airs,  that  the  enemy  should  have  been  so  un- 
grateful as  to  shoot  at  them,  so  wounded  their  feel- 
ings that  they  had  to  be  sent  out  of  the  army  and 
they  did  not  re-join  it  for  nearly  a  year  afterwards. 

If  a  line  of  good'  soldiers  can  be  formed  in  rushing 


Appendix.  91 

distance,  almost  anything  can  be  carried.  But  if  a 
wide  and  open  field  has  to  be  passed  and  there  is  to 
be  a  loss  from  twenty-five  to  seventy  per  cent,  and  the 
consequent  disorganization,  nothing  but  useless 
bloodshed  can  be  expected.  This  would  appear  to  be 
a  truth  so  self-evident  that  the  merest  tyro  could 
comprehend  it.  But  yet  Burnside  and  Hancock  (till 
too  late)  do  not  appear  to  have  done  so  at  Freder- 
icksburg. General  Lee  did  not  at  Malvern  Hill  and 
Gettysburg,  and,  in  ignorance  of  this  law,  the  gallant 
Schobelef  sacrificed  the  best  division  of  the  Russian 
army  at  Plevna. 

Bodies  in  motion,  by  their  momentum,  advance  in 
the  direction  of  least  resistance.  A  body  of  soldiers 
making  an  attack  forms  no  exception  to  this  law  of 
physics.  When  the  Philadelphia  brigade  of  Gibbon's 
division,  which  had  been  roughly  handled  the  day  be- 
fore, gave  way  as  our  men  got  in  charging  distance, 
tliis  point  of  least  resistance  was  fiilled  by  Confeder- 
ates— a  disorganized  mob  of  about  1,000 — in  which 
several  brigades  had  representatives,  and  this  is  very 
foolishly  called  the  "high  water  mark  of  the  Confed- 
eracy." Why,  there  was  not  a  fresh  regiment  in 
the  Federal  army  which  could  not  have  defeated 
this  body,  and  there  was  a  whole  corps  of  fresh  regi- 
ments  at  hand.  The  Sixth,  which  by  many  was  con- 
sider^] the  best  in  the  army  had  hardly  fired  a  shot. 
If  there  was  any  high  water  mark  connected  with 
this  battle  it  was  reached  the  afternoon  before,  while 
McLaws,  Hood  and  Anderson  were  doing  their  fight- 
ing— and  the  precise  time  was  when  Wright's  brig- 
ade, of  I  he  last  named  division,  having  driven  the 
enemy  before  them,  had  carried  a  battery  of  twenty 
guns.  Shortly  afterwards  one  of  McLawV  brigades 
gave  way.  and  with  its  defeat  went  our  fortunes. 
Every  shot  fired  by  us  the  next  day  was  one  more 
nail  in  the  coffin  of  the  Confederacy. — Scotland  Neck 
Commonwealth. 


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KETT  OR  PETT1GREW  ? 


AN 


HISTORICAL  ESSAY, 

[revised  AND  ENLARGED.] 


BY 


CAPT.  W.  R.  BOND, 

Sometime  Officer  Brigade  Staff  Army  Northern  Virginia. 


"Tell  the  truth  arid  the  world  will  come  to  sw 
it  at  Inst."— Emerson. 

B 


SECOND  EDITION. 


Single  copy,        -  -        $   .25 

Fiveeopies,        -  -  1.00 


W.  L.  L.  HALL,  Publisher, 
Scotland  Neck,  N.  C. 


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